


A Whole New Life

by Aquinna26



Series: A Whole New Life [1]
Category: Chicago Fire
Genre: F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-19
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-08-26 01:13:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 37,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16671958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aquinna26/pseuds/Aquinna26
Summary: Kelly Severide a mentor? He'd never thought of himself as someone who would be a good influence on anyone. He'd always just been a firefighter. That's who he was, a damn good one; but not necessarily the type of person people went to for advice or guidance. When the Chaplain asks him for a favor though, he for some reason agrees. This is the story of how one girl changes Kelly's life for the better, in a way he couldn't possibly of have imagined.





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> Dawson doesn't exist.  
> Shay is alive and well.  
> I am going to try to keep to canon as much as I can.  
> Timelines and such may be off a bit.  
> I have not really ever shared my writing before.  
> This is new for me. Constructive suggestions welcome.

Disclaimer: I do not own Chicago Fire characters. Mack Hudson is mine.

“Hey Kelly, you got a second?” Chaplin Orlovsky asked after the chaos of the common room calmed down given his announcement about retirement.

Severide stopped and turned from his plan to grab a moment for paperwork in his quarters and followed the chaplain on the equipment floor, grabbing a seat at the “squad table.”

“What’s up?” He asked curiously as to what the retiring chaplain wanted from him. Being CFD for so long and with Benny as his father, he’d known the chaplain for a long time, had appreciated his work with his men; but did not typically seek out the man’s help for himself. He’d found that seeking understanding with a higher power did not usually work with him throughout his years, despite the reprieve his mother had found with her church.

“I’m hoping you could do me a favor as a retirement gift,” the chaplain said with an impish grin.

Severide automatically knew that what the Chaplin was going to ask him was more than just a small favor if he was pulling the ‘retirement’ card.

“Oh?” Severide stated raising his eyebrows.

“Look, I know that you and I haven’t had the strongest connection through the years, Benny is who he is and probably didn’t instill the greatest belief in a higher power with you, but I’ve always respected you like a damn good firefighter, a leader and honestly, a good person. I got this girl, she’s in my youth group, she just…” The chaplain said trying to find the right words to describe the situation in order to get Severide to help. “She reminds me of you back in the day….I was wondering if she could shadow you on squad sometime?” Orlovsky asked.

Severide regarded the Chaplain for a minute. He wondered what it was about him as a teenage that reminded the Chaplain of him from his teen years when he thinks of himself back then, he couldn’t think of anything remotely good, anything that would make him want to have some teenage _girl_ version of himself on his truck all day.

“I can’t think of anything about myself at that age, that would make me want to have someone like that on my rig all day, never mind a girl,” Severide says honestly.

Orlovsky chuckled, “Don’t I know it. Benny and I didn’t talk much back then, but man the stories he told me…” He said looking at Kelly, “I just…. there’s something there, I can’t put my finger on it….” The Chaplain said quietly.

Severide regarded him quietly for a minute. The last month, losing Benny, all the shit with Gorsh, it had sucked. Impulsively he smirked, “Yeah sure have her come by next shift. She can ride with me” Severide said standing up to head back to his quarters.

 

 

 

Later that night, the loft (The place they'd moved into after the original place in season 1):

 “What’s this I hear about you having a ride along next shift?” Matt said leaning at the door of Kelly’s bedroom door.

When Dawson had taken the permanent position in Puerto Rico and Matt had stayed on his couch for 2 weeks straight, Shay had casually suggested that he might as well just move in. It was clear he didn’t want to go back to the place he had shared with Dawson. Since Otis had moved out of the 3rd bedroom 6 months before She and Kelly had been carrying the place by themselves. Being in the CFD was like another world, they couldn’t have just anyone move in with them and they had yet to even start looking when Matt had crashed for a week or so. After it was clear his pile of clothes by the couch was growing by the day, Shay just told him to pack up and move in. Matt didn’t even try to say no, it was clear that he needed to get out of his place and there was something about living with Shay and Severide that allowed him to feel calm in a way he had never felt before.

Kelly was leaning against his headboard doing a crossword puzzle when Matt popped up, he looked up and smiled at Matt before putting the folded up paper on his bedside table.

 “Yeah, Orlovsky guilt-tripped me into it,” Kelly said laughing as he gave Matt a nod to come to hang out for a while. Matt didn’t need to be told twice. “Says she reminds him of me when I was a teenager,” Kelly said with a smirk.

Matt, laying on his back with his hands behind his head snorted, ‘You want a _female teenage Severide on your rig all day?”_ he asked dubious of how that would work out.

Matt and Kelly had friendly since the academy, that’s where Darden and Kelly had met Matt and brought him into their circle. While Matt technically didn’t meet Kelly until he was in his 20s, he’d heard enough stories to know that Kelly as a teen was not someone he’d want on his team all day.

Kelly laughed, “No I don’t, but he guilt-tripped me. Plus, I don’t know…. seems like maybe if riding with me can save her from some of the shit I had to endure before I actually grew up, then maybe it’s worth it” Kelly said quietly.

Matt looked to his left, “you grew up?” he asked smirking. Kelly laughed and pushed his shoulder.

Matt smiled as he lay next to hi; Kelly didn’t let many people see it, hell Matt wondered if anyone, but he and Shay knew just how nice a guy Kelly Severide was, “You are good guy Kelly Severide” he said quietly as they lay there. Kelly picked up his paper again and went back to do the crossword.

Kelly laughed quietly, “We’ll see if you’re still saying that after I have this girl running rescue drills until she pukes,” he said quietly.

Matt laughed before closing his eyes. An hour later Kelly found himself dozing and got up to brush his teeth before bed. He looked at Matt, who was now laying on his stomach quietly snoring. He debated waking the guy up but decided against it. They’d ended up in the same bed numerous times in the last 3 months since Matt had moved in and he’d lost his father. Kelly wondered briefly what was happening between them. They’d had a few moments between them at the academy but nothing too serious and it didn't last long. Matt had met Hallie and Kelly had met the first Renea. He hadn’t been with another guy since Matt but wasn’t opposed to it. There was something easy about the connection he felt with Casey lately. No pressure, no worry, just quiet support that, given the year they’d both had was very much needed.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Kelly was seated in his green recliner at the squad table when he saw the chaplain walk into the firehouse followed by a teenage girl who looked like she wanted to be anywhere but there.

“Lieutenant Severide” The Chaplain called out with a smile on his face as he walked over to the ‘squad table’

Severide smiled as he stood to take the man’s hand. He could see immediately why the girl reminded the older man of himself as a teen if the facial expression she wore was remotely indicative of her general mood/behavior.

“I’d like you to meet Mackenzie Hudson,” The older man said smiling

“Hi, Mackenzie, I’m Lieutenant Severide, nice to meet you,” Kelly said smiling as he put his hand to shake the girl’s hand.

The girl, tall, clearly strong stared at him with stone in her eyes. It seemed to Kelly she was trying to decide how much of a bitch she wanted to be about this whole thing. They held each other’s eye for a second before the girl put her hand in Kelly’s.

“I like to be called Mack,” She said quietly.

“Mack it is,” Kelly said smiling before turning to the Chaplain “Don’t worry we’ll keep her in one piece,” he said smiling.

Orlovsky laughed, “That’s all I ask. See you at the end of the shift.” He said as he walked out of the firehouse, silently praying that Kelly could get through to the girl no one else had been able to get to open up.

Mackenzie Hudson was his last “project” before retiring. She’d been in the “system” for years after her parents died in a car accident when she was three and her only living relative had refused to assume custody of her. Shy and guarded since birth, the foster system had done the girl no favors. After a series of unsuccessful placements, she’d been placed at a group home where she’d lived ever since. Mackenzie had, for the most part, managed to stay out of trouble. She went to school, did her work and stayed away from most everyone. The group home leader, a nice lady by the name of Miranda had asked Orlovsky to find the girl a mentor, someone who Mackenzie could stay connected to beyond the foster system when she aged out in 2 years. Orlovsky had immediately thought of Kelly and his quiet, strong, stubborn streak.

“Guys, do an inventory check of the rig, I’m going to give Mack a tour’ Kelly said looking at his team. They all stood and headed to their truck with a ‘sure thing boss.’ He brought Mack into the house by the common room. “So this is 51, we have my squad, Rescue 3, that’s Captain Casey over there, he’s in charge of truck 81 and over there is Lieutenant Hermann, he’s head of Engine 51. The blond girl, Shay is a paramedic on 61, her partner’s name is Brett.” Kelly said as he brought the girl into the common room. He didn’t get everyone’s attention as he could tell she would not like that. “You’ll meet everyone throughout the day, let me introduce you to the chief,” Kelly said bringing her through the common room and into the bullpen where Boden’s office was

Kelly walked up to Boden’s open door and knocked, “Chief, this is Mack Hudson, the girl Chap wanted me to give a shadow too” Kelly said walking into Boden’s office. After Orlovsky had requested this of him, he’d chatted with Boden about it at Molly’s the other night. Kelly was still a little perplexed as to what the Chaplain thought he could do for the girl but Boden had thought it was a good idea, so he’d gone with it.

“Awe yes, Ms, Hudson welcome to Firehouse 51,” Boden said coming around his desk to give her a handshake.

“it’s Mack,” she said quietly meeting his hand with her own firm handshake.

“Mack, keep an eye on this one for me will you, we’re not all quite sure why Chap felt you’d be in good hands with him, but…” Boden said with a mischievous smile.

Kelly laughed and punched Boden’s shoulder. “Ha, very funny,” Kelly said leading the girl out of the Boden’s office and into the bunk room bringing her over to his office.

“This is my office, you can leave your bag here. You’ll be able to get some shut-eye in here, later on, I’ll use another bunk” Kelly said showing her the bed he’d changed the sheets on that morning when he’d gotten to the firehouse, along with an extra towel Shay had brought from home.

“I don’t want to kick you out of your office.” She said quietly looking at the pictures the guy had taped to the window behind his desk. She recognized one like him and that paramedic chic he’d introduced her too and another with the captain guy the lieutenant had pointed out in the common room.

“No worries, I checked in with my guy on 3rd watch, he said I could crash on his bunk. So Mack, what’s your story?” Kelly asked as he brought her back out to the equipment floor and through the doors to the front of the firehouse where the Squad 3 truck was sitting ready to go when a call came in.

Orlovsky hadn’t given him a lot of info about the girl and he wanted to make sure he didn’t step on any landmines or have one of his guys say something by mistake.

“What do you want to know?” Mack asked quietly sitting next to this guy. He seemed different. She didn’t know why or how, but there was something about him that seemed like he would actually care about what she said.

Kelly shrugged his shoulders, “whatever you want to tell me,” he said. “Chap seemed to think there was something about me that might be helpful, I’m not convinced of that by the way,” Kelly said sarcastically.

Mack laughed, “I’ve been at the Martin house since I was 7. Apparently shy kids who don’t like to talk don’t get adopted. I’m not damaged or anything, at least I don’t think so. I just don’t like dealing with bullshit. I don’t like people trying to make life seem better than it is. It’s bull. I’m a Sophomore over at Whitney Young. I took some test this year that said I’d be a good firefighter. That’s why they connected me with Orlovsky and then you.” Mack said not really looking at Kelly.

“You think you’d be a good firefighter?” Kelly asked after hearing about why the girl was interested in the job.

“I didn’t really ever think about it before….it’s this class I’m in, Pathfinder. I had to do a paper on the top 3 jobs that test said I would be good at. Let me tell you, there is no fucking way I’m becoming a cop or a teacher. I hate kids, and people do stupid shit all the time. I don’t think I’d have the patience for being a cop. Fighting to save people though? That seems kind of cool.” Mack said.

Kelly said listening to her, smiling at her swearing, he could tell they’d get along well. Just as he was going to respond the bells rung

_Squad 3, Ambulance 61, Motor vehicle accident Dan Ryan Expressway at the South Union Ave expressway on-ramp._

Kelly jumped into action before Mack knew what was happening pulling her into the truck with him. Before Mack could blink Tony was in the driver’s seat and they were on their way. “Mack, when we get there stand right outside my door. Just watch.” Kelly said before turning to his guys to give directions as they navigated through traffic, Tony laying on the horn. Five minutes later, the Squad was navigating it’s way up the expressway onramp to come upon a car hanging halfway off the road and a pickup truck on fire next to it.

As the crew got out of their rig they could hear the car groaning as it teetered on the side of the ride.

Kelly immediately radioed central, “I’m going to need back up here ASAP, patch me into Captain Casey,” Kelly said into his radio before giving instruction to his crew. He could see that there was someone in the car hanging over the side of the expressway.

“Capp, Cruz grab the chains and secure the car, Tony check the truck, see if anyone is in there,” Kelly said running over to the side of the car. “Hey in thee, what’s your name?” Kelly asked as he peered into the backseat of the car seeing a little kid strapped into a car seat.

The kid looked at him terrified, “Mommy” he said crying for his mother. Kelly looked to the front seat to see if he could see anyone there. He saw a woman in the driver’s seat, slumped over the wheel with blood running down her face. ‘Fuck!’ Kelly said to himself. Where the hell was Casey! He looked around at his crew. Shay and Brett were treating victims, his crew was working to secure the car and put out the fire in the other. He noticed Mack standing there watching with wide, amazed eyes. He couldn’t worry about her right now, this was what she needed to see.

Kelly ran back to the rig in order to harness up in order to get them ready to climb into the car. Kelly started talking to the boy as he climbed into the slowly and carefully to get to the women in the front. There was a loud groan from the car as it teetered on the edge from Kelly’s extra weight. He went about getting both of the occupants out of the car and on the way to the hospital. Casey and his crew showed up to support squad. They were a well-oiled machine. Given all the craziness of the last couple of years, one would think that it would have an impact on their ability work as a team. Not Firehouse 51, they were true professionals, never letting anything from the outside impact their ability to do their job. True there was typically some type of drama or another coming out of their house but these guys were masters at putting anything and everything out of their minds.

Mack stood back amazed by what she was watching. No hesitation as Kelly went about getting all his men working and freeing those two from the car all the while managing two other crews before Chief Boden came and took over for Kelly. All told they were on scene for three hours. The mother and son were both injured and on the way to Med but would be fine.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

As squad 3, Truck 81 and Ambulance 61 drove back into the firehouse Kelly jumped out of the rig and left his turnout gear by the front door. “It’s chow time” he said leading his crew into the common area where Engine 51’s candidate was finishing up lunch.

“Mack grab a plate,” Kelly said bringing her up to the counter to grab some food.

“Oh that’s okay, I brought my lunch,” Mack said quietly and pointing toward Kelly’s office where her backpack was.

Kelly was already seated at the table next to the Matt and Shay, “grab and plate and sit. We’re drilling after we eat, I can guarantee you didn’t bring enough food to get you ready for that.” Kelly said with a smile, to which his crew groaned, and Matt’s crew laughed.

“Eat up boys, you’ll be joining them,” Matt said when he saw his crew starting to laugh, while he shared a look with Kelly.

Mack filled her plate with a sandwich, salad, and chips before sitting down at the table across from Kelly.

“So, Mack, what did you think?” Matt asked as he took a bite of his sandwich.

Mack sat and chewed her sandwich for a second thinking about how to answer that question, “Is it bad to say it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen?” she asked shyly as she thought back to seeing Kelly crawling over the roof of the car in order to get in and save the mother and son.

Kelly and Matt shared a look while Shay snorted and muttered ‘she’s caught the bug’ under her breath, “No, not all,” Matt said laughing quietly. “So, besides firefighting what are you into?” he asked.

“I play soccer for my school’s team, goalie” that’s pretty much it. I like to read.” Mack replied quietly.

“I played in high school, central midfielder,” Shay said joining the conversation.

“Oh please, you only were only on the team because you had the hots for the captain of the team,” Kelly said laughing.

Shay snorted and laughed along with him, “yeah so, it doesn’t mean I didn’t play, I just had an ulterior motive for trying out for the team,” she said smirking, to which the rest of the table laughed.

Mack regarded this table full of people whom she just met. She’d never been in a place or with people whom she felt so safe and connected to so quickly. It’s like this was where she was meant to be. The rest of lunch was spent observing how the teams interacted with each other. How Kelly and Matt’s connection seemed particularly strong. She wondered briefly if there was more to that relationship than met the eye but quickly let it go, when she realized it didn’t matter either way.

They finished eating then met out on the apparatus floor for drills. Mack stood back and watched the team run through drills before Kelly had her jumping right in there with them. The fact that she was a natural athlete clearly played to her advantage because soon enough she was smoking much of the Squad crew on various drills, much to the amusement of Brett and Shay who were lounging at the Squad table watching as Kelly and Matt ran their men through the paces. After being thoroughly humiliated, Mouch called uncle, never to self-centered to admit defeat to a 16-year-old rookie.

After the men packed everything up and Shay dragged Mack over to 61 in an effort to get her to recognize that being a paramedic was a much better choice than a firefighter, Kelly headed to his quarters to finish paperwork while there was a quiet moment.

 

A bit later:

“You seem to have actually been a good influence on the kid,” Matt said with a chuckle, leaning against the door of Kelly’s office. He’d been watching him for a while. The way Kelly bit on the end of his pen as he thought about something before continuing with his reports. Kelly was old school, choosing to do much of his work by hand instead of taking advantage of the new computers the department had given the higher-ups 6 months before. Connie always complained about his handwriting, which was hard to read, but Matt could always tell there was a certain respect Connie had for Kelly’s old school ways.

Matt had never really noticed how beautiful Kelly was until recently. The piercing blue eyes, the salt, and pepper hair. The way Kelly’s shoulders filled out his lieutenant’s polo. Being Kelly’s best friend for all these years (even when they were barely talking after Andy) Matt always had appreciated Kelly for the quiet confidence he’d always exuded, despite that it often came off as blinding self-centeredness and bullheaded stubbornness. They always got along pretty well for which he was thankful; the last 6 months though, the connection they were building, Matt really started to realize just how _attracted_ to Kelly.

Kelly put down his pen and turned to Matt, “You see her smoke the boys on the ladder drill?” Kelly said smiling, a level of pride for how well the girl had done. It slightly concerned him that his crew had had such a hard time keeping up with her, but that was something he could easily fix. Watching her figure these drills out on the second or third try and do so well, talent like that _couldn’t_ be taught.

“There is no way that Boden is not going to remind them of that constantly in the coming months,” Matt said laughing as he laid down on Kelly’s bunk, putting his arms up under his head and crossing his legs.

“Nor should he, those guys’ fitness has been lacking lately,” Kelly said somewhat seriously. He himself had always thrived on hard workouts that thoroughly destroyed him, didn’t really understand Mouch or Otis’ propensity for sitting on the couch all the time. Sure, they were in good enough shape to do their jobs, but what he preferred to do was more than just to maintain for the sake of the job. He glanced over at Matt laying on his bed and sucked in his breath. The deep V sliding under Matt’s pants was visible with his arms under his head like they were making his brain go places it shouldn’t be going especially at work. At their apartment, it seemed maybe that was something that Matt might be ok with knowing Kelly was thinking.

“Yeah….you going to invite her back?” Matt asked changing the subject from their team.

“Think I should?” Kelly asked, honestly interested in the Captain’s opinion.

“Yes, you are an amazing firefighter Kelly, a great leader. She’d be lucky to learn from you, anyone would be.” Matt said seriously.

Kelly blushed a little, looking back at his latest equipment requisition list, “thanks,” he said quietly, just as he was about to say something else, the bells rung.

The entire house was on the call until the wee hours of the night. Only getting back to the house for a quick bite to eat and some shut-eye. Soon enough the shift was over, and the team was spreading to out to their various second jobs and houses to sleep.

Kelly and Matt had driven to shift together the day before, so they were walking out of the house with Mack.

“Thank you so much for the opportunity to shadow,” Mack said quietly shaking Kelly and Matt’s hand.

“Your welcome. Glad you enjoyed it, you’re welcome to come back anytime Mack, really” Kelly said honestly. “With the way, you smoked my team, I’d be glad to have you come to whip them back into shape,” he said smiling which got a small laugh out of the girl and a chuckle form Matt.

Nodding a little to herself as much as to the two men, “I think that would be cool” she said before saying goodbye and walked over to the bus stop to head back to her house.

Matt and Kelly watched to make sure she got on her bus ok then jumped into Matt’s truck and headed back to their house, very ready to get some sleep.

 

 


	4. 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Struggled a little bit with this chapter. Hopefully, you all enjoy it. Always welcome feedback!

Chapter 4

After napping for a few hours, Matt headed off to his latest construction project on the other side of town and Kelly headed to the marina to work on his boat. He’d been working on the hull of the boat for a while when he heard a knock at the door to the shed, he used he turned to see Shay standing with a brown paper bag, which Kelly knew had his favorite sandwich from around the corner in it.

Standing up while wiping his hands off and pulling the respirator mask over his head, Kelly gave Shay a kiss on her head and snatched the bag from her, “women knows the way to my heart” Kelly said smiling and sitting down at the picnic table outside the shed. He saw that Shay had already set down her own sandwich.

Kelly kind of smiled to himself. He was surprised it had taken this long for Shay to ambush him for info. They’d known each other forever, had been best friends since the first day Shay had shown up for shift at the firehouse 12 years before. They’d seen each other through all their relationships; the good the bad and the ugly. Lately, though, it seemed both were moving toward the good of relationships. Shay had met a fellow paramedic at house 48, a woman by the name of Emily Foster; they were taking it slow; both she and Kelly had learned that jumping in too fast, too soon usually spelled disaster.

Kelly liked messing with Shay, it was so easy and he loved to see her frustrated sighs as he purposefully avoided the topic he knew she wanted to discuss the most.

“Okay enough, are you ever going to tell me what’s going on with you and Casey?” Shay finally asked with a huff. Kelly smiled and hooked his arm around her neck to give her a kiss on the head.

After a moment to think about how he wanted to answer, he sighed. “I don’t actually know. You know we had those few moments back in the academy. Then he met Hallie, I met Renee, it was kind of never talked about it again. Not in a bad way….it was just not something we ever talked about. Andy always gave me shit about not making something more serious of it. He always thought we should have.” Kelly said with a sigh. Even 7 years after losing Andy, thinking about his best friend was hard.

“When Dawson left, Matt came to stay and then he never left. I don’t know maybe a few months or so ago, after Benny, we were talking, it was late, we must have fallen asleep in my bed. I swear Shay, I hadn’t slept that well in like years….” Kelly said quietly as he ate his sandwich, waiting for Shay to respond. Shay just nodded. “Nothing much has happened beyond the sleep. If we want to be teenagers about it.” Kelly said smirking at Shay, “we’ve kissed a few times.” Kelly laughed giving Shay a glare when she wolf-whistled at him.

“Sev?” Shay said after a moment of silence.

“Yay?” he asked looking at her with hesitance.

“Maybe you guys are just ready now. Maybe you don’t need to overthink it or there doesn’t need to be any drama, maybe you guys just make sense in a way that wasn’t true before” Shay said quietly.

Severide nodded quietly as he took a sip of his beer and looked at Shay. He didn’t say anything, just leaned over and gave Shay a big hug. They hung out a while longer enjoying the sun of the afternoon before Shay headed out to meet Emily and Severide got back to work.

He was listening to the latest Armchair Expert podcast when he heard the sound of a text coming in.

_From Casey to Severide: you have dinner plans? Almost quitting time here._

_From Severide to Casey: no, haven’t thought about it. At the marina, trying to finish this coat of poly._

_From Casey to Severide: oh ok. Well then, I guess I’ll see you later…_

Shit! Kelly thought to himself, he thinks I don’t _want_ to do dinner with him

_From Severide to Casey: should be finished by 7 if you can wait a bit. I’d need to grab a shower, super dirty._

There was a pause while Kelly was waiting for Matt’s reply. He saw the three bubbles appear and disappear several times…

 _From Casey to Severide: Was thinking we could head over to Big Jones in Andersonville. They have that whiskey tasting thing you like_. Kelly smiled to himself when he realized that Matt was specifically thinking of a place that he thought Kelly would enjoy.

 _From Severide to Casey: Good memory. I’ll meet you there.  8 sound good?_ Kelly texted. He now how new motivation to get the coat of poly finished and head back to their place to shower and change.

_From Casey to Severide: (Thumbs up emoji)_

 

7 pm Kelly walking into their apartment

Shay is supposed to be at Emily’s place so he’s surprised to see them on the couch watching TV and cuddling

“Oh hey, I thought you were out tonight?’ Kelly said with a question in his voice. He was not planning on having Shay and Emily at their place tonight.

Shay snorted and looked at Kelly, “don’t worry I know all about your date with Casey, we will be gone by the time you guys get back” she said sarcastically. Kelly blushed three shades of red.

“That is not…” he started to say.

Shay got up and patted him on the face before grabbing her and Emily’s coat from the counter, “bullshit. Wear those Diesel jeans I bought you last month. You won’t be wearing them long, but that’s kind of the point, right?” Shay said raising her eyebrows suggestively.

“Jesus Shay!” Kelly said thoroughly embarrassed in front of her girlfriend.

“She’s totally right Kel if I weren’t totally gay and with Shay, I’d totally fuck you if I saw you in those jeans, and the white button down you wore to that opening,” Emily said smiling as she joined in on the fun of ribbing Kelly, referring to the shirt he’d worn to an art opening he’d tagged along with them on a while back.

“Leave, now! Both of you!” Kelly said smiling after giving them a hug and heading to the bathroom. He showered quickly and debated about shaving before deciding to leave the bit of 5’oclock shadow he had going before heading to his room to dress. Kelly had to laugh at himself as he stood in his towel debating what to wear before deciding that Shay and Emily were right about the jeans and shirt they’d mentioned earlier. After slapping on some aftershave and slipping his phone and wallet into his back pocket he headed out, knowing that with traffic, it may take him a while to get over to the Andersonville restaurant he was meeting Matt at.

 

Andersonville restaurant:

Kelly parked his car and walked down the street trying to remind himself that the person he was meeting was Matt, that they’d know each other for over a _decade_ that there was no pressure. It was not working at all. Kelly couldn’t remember the last time he was this nervous.

Pulling the door open to the busy restaurant he was met with the expectant eye of the hostess.

  
“Hi ahhh, I’m meeting someone here,” Kelly said suddenly even more nervous than he was 3 minutes ago if that was actually possible. He stuffed his hand in the pocket of his coat rocking back on his heals as he looked around the restaurant. They’d been here before on a double date a long time ago. He and his last girlfriend, Matt and Dawson. They’d had fun that night he remembered.

“Name?” The lady asked.

“Um, Severide, Kelly” Kelly said wiping his hands on the front of his jeans and taking a deep breath.

“awe yes, your date is already here sir, come with me,” the hostess said smiling. She could always tell the ones who came in on dates, they had a look for pure nervousness on their faces. This guys' date looked much that same way this guy did.

Kelly followed the hostess through the bar area and into the dining room, scanning to see if he could see Matt anywhere. He was over in the corner, by the window. Kelly heaved a deep breath, could it be possible that Matt looked _better_ than he typically did. It looked like he’d gotten a haircut and was wearing the blue flannel shirt Kelly thought looked great on him

“Here you are, sir? Can I get you a drink?” the hostess said pulling out the chair for Kelly.

“Um, I’m good with water for a moment,” Kelly said looking at Matt, who’d stood up when he realized Kelly had arrived. The hostess left and Kelly and Matt were left alone. They stood staring at each other for a moment before Kelly broke the stare and leaned in to give Matt a quick kiss on the side of his face and a hug.

“You look incredible” he whispered into Matt’s ear before sitting down.

“So do you,” Matt said with a blush sitting down as well.

There was a moment of silence as they sat and regarded each other, neither sure of how to proceed.

“Sev” Matt started to say as Kelly said Matt, Kelly smiled and signaled for Matt to proceed.

Matt laughed quietly, “were you able to finish the poly coat?” asked as they perused the menu debating what he was going to order for dinner.

Kelly visibly relaxed. ‘this is Matt, you know Matt, you both have a good time together,’ he said to himself before answering.

”Yeah, I got it finished earlier than I thought actually. I’ll need to go back on Saturday to do another coat” Kelly said quietly as he looked at Matt.

Matt was nodding, “that’s good, you want some help?” he asked. He had helped Kelly with some boat repairs in the past. He honestly enjoyed the work almost as much as his construction work. What he really like though is being around Kelly.

The rest of their dinner went really well. Once each of them got over the nervousness of what was happening, the conversation flowed and literally didn’t stop, even when the waitress came over to give them a check, which Matt snatched before Kelly could even register that it was there.

“Matt...” Kelly said wanting to pay for some of their dinner.

“Sev, I invited you to dinner, let me pay for it please,” Matt said in a serious tone. Kelly could tell that it was important to Matt for him to pay for dinner, so he just smiled and said thank you.

They lingered over coffee and then decided to head back to the apartment. Matt had taken an uber to the restaurant, so Kelly drove them both home; being ever the gentleman and opening the passenger door for Matt.

 

 

Back at the apartment.

They walked into the apartment laughing about something Otis had done the day before on shift, the ease with which they’d found themselves drawn to each other continuing, despite what was in the back of the mind for both men. Kelly noticed a Walgreens bag on the counter with a note on it from Shay. He walked over to the bag wondering what she’d left him.

 

Kel-

Have fun tonight 😊

-Shay

P.S. I will NOT be back at the apartment before shift.

See you later

 

Kelly looked in the bag and rolled his eyes and huffed embarrassment.

 

“What’s that?” Matt asked coming right up behind Kelly and leaning over his shoulder to look in the bag.

 

Matt’s face immediately turned three shades of red, but he did not move from leaning against Kelly’s back, “Oh,” he said.

 

Kelly turned around, so he could look, Matt, “it doesn’t mean anything other than what you and I want it to mean,” he said quietly before pulling Matt into a full hug and hooking his chin over Matt’s shoulders. “Although I am certainly not opposed to making use of their present” he added with his signature tone of jest, which made Matt laugh into Kelly’s shoulder. He pulled his body back just enough to meet Kelly’s eyes, wordlessly asked for permission before bringing his lips to Kelly’s.

 

Matt deepened the kiss, wrapping his arms around Kelly, pulling his body tight against Kelly’s. Kelly’s hands went to Matt’s lower back pulling at his shirt to free it from his pants. Matt’s entire body tingled when he felt Kelly’s hands on his back, trying to get to more skin. Kelly pulled away a bit in order to unbutton Matt’s shirt, kissing along his chin and collarbone as he went. Matt flipped them around so that he was leaning on the counter of the island, worried that he’d collapse into a puddle given how he was reacting to Kelly’s touch.

 

Their connection was slow and thoughtful, there would be rushed and hurried and frantic later. Tonight, tonight was about showing each other just how important this connection was and what they each wanted from it long term.

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, real life got a bit in the way and then I had to work through some writer's block. Please be sure to leave feedback, still new to the writing thing, would love any thoughts/ideas you all have. 
> 
> I should note that there is the use of a derogatory term in reference to lesbians. Please know I do not intend any harm in using the term. Just be warned.

After speaking with Chaplain Orlovsky and the director of her group home, Kelly had Mack enrolled in the CFD Fire Explorers Program. Being a part of the program allowed her to have a more official role within the firehouse and provided her with an opportunity to be more active during calls and training drills. She even got her own set of turnout gear.

Mack quickly became somewhat of a fixture on shift when Kelly was there. She primarily rode with Squad, but as she was an official member of the Explorers Program, she was expected to observe and participate in other areas of the CFD as well. Mack enjoyed all aspects of the CFD that she saw, but she knew she wanted squad. There was only one other female on a Squad, but Mack felt like that was where she belonged.

Kelly Severide might be known as a hot-headed, balls to the wall firefighter, that had been known to piss off a lot of people in his path (much like his father before him), he was also considered one of the best fire-fighters in Squad’s recent memory. The fact he was the youngest ever to make Squad at 23, was also a well-known fact. Mack felt like having Kelly as a mentor was going to be her secret weapon.

Mack wasn’t quite sure why they connected so well, she thought maybe it had to do with their upbringing and the fact that they were both the silent types, preferring to stay on the periphery than be right in the middle of it (except when it came to fighting fires with Kelly). Being at 51 became her driving force, she did anything and everything to be able to spend as much time there as possible.

As she was using the ride-along as part of her Pathfinder class hours, she was allowed to miss school to be on shift with Kelly as well. She was quiet and often could be found at the squad table reading a book or studying when not participating in drills or other firehouse activities. She, Kelly, Matt, and Shay often had breakfast after shifts, Mack meeting them wherever they decided on as she was not allowed to sleep at the firehouse after the first ride-along per the rules of her group home.

It was three months after she’d started with the firehouse that Kelly got a call as he and Matt were walking out of 51 after a shift headed to their apartment for some much-needed rest. They’d had an extremely busy shift, barely getting any time to rest. The men were bone tired and couldn’t wait to get back to the apartment, shower and fall into bed.

Kelly looked at his phone for a second, not recognizing the number but answering anyway, “Severide,” he said going to his car. After listening to whoever was on the phone for a second his eyes got wide and he stopped, surprising Matt, who was a step behind him.

“This is Lieutenant Severide, yes. I can. I’ll be there in 10 minutes.” He said before ending the call and putting his phone away.

“What’s up?” Matt asked concerned.

“That was Mack’s school. Apparently she got in a fight and asked to have me called,” Kelly said quietly. “Why would I be called?” He asked Matt looking unsure of himself.

Matt chuckled and smiled at his boyfriend, “Because she trusts you and knowns, you’ll have her back,” Matt said looking around before pecking him on the lips quickly before running to catch a ride with Shay as he’d come to shift with Kelly.

 

Whitney Young High School

Kelly pulled up in front of the high school and drew in a deep breath. He wasn’t exactly sure what Mack expected him to be able to do, he wasn’t Miranda, he couldn’t exactly take any responsibility for her. There was something there, deep in his stomach, she’d given _his_ name to when she was in trouble. It made him smile a little as she trusted him beyond the firehouse. Pocketing his keys, he closed the door to his car and took the front steps two at a time entering the big high school while looking for the front office.

Seeing the office to the right; immediately he walked in prepared to talk to the secretary when he got a sight of Mack, sitting in a chair, with a huge black eye, ice on her knee and her hand-wrapped in an ace bandage.

“Mack!” Kelly said surprised sitting down next to her, “Are you ok?” he asked giving her a once over.

“I’m fine,” Mack said with a voice of steel, not willing to let any emotion show through, even though all she wanted to do was throw her arms around Kelly and cry.

Kelly was looking at her wounds more closely when the principal came out, “Mr. Severide?” he said with an air of arrogance. Kelly and Mack exchanged a quick look before Kelly turned toward the man and rose to his feet. ” Principal Martin,” the man said holding his hand out to shake Kelly’s hand.

Kelly gave him a quick firm handshake, “It’s Lieutenant Severide. What the hell happened? Why isn’t she in with the nurse?” Kelly asked waving his hand at her as if to say, ‘do you not see all of her injuries?’

The principal kept his stern look and regarded the man in front of him “She refused treatment, insisting that someone named Shay would take care of her when you arrived.” The man said. Kelly smiled at that.

“Would you come into my office, please? We need to have a conversation about Mackenzie’s behavior” the principal said showing Kelly into his office.

Kelly rolled his eyes and looked at Mack, giving her a ‘what did you do’ look. He grabbed her bag and helped her up.

“Oh Mackenzie, you can wait out here.” The man said.

Kelly was really starting to hate this man and he’d only known him for 10 minutes, “if we’re talking about Mack, I’m pretty sure she should be in the room,” Kelly said making no room for argument. They all walked into principal’s office and sat down, Kelly readjusting Mack’s ice and checking to make sure she was situated.

“So, you going to tell me what’s up?” Kelly said annoyed at this man and his arrogance.

“Well Mr. Severide,” Principal Martin started to say.

Most of the time, Kelly couldn’t care less about his rank and title, this was _not_ one of those times, “Lieutenant” he corrected quickly.

“Yes, Lieutenant, I would like the know as well. All the information I have is that Mackenzie attacked another student, unprovoked might I add, and severely injured his arm, as well as attacking him in his private area.” Principal Martin said giving Mack a look of pure disappointment.

Kelly looked at Mack then, suppressing his urge to laugh at how the principal had said the last part. He’d only known her a little while, but in that time, he’d learned that Mack Hudson never did _anything_ unprovoked or without purpose. “That true,” he asked Mack.

“Well it’s true I hit him and kicked him, it’s not true it was unprovoked,” Mack said quietly. Kelly could see a change in her demeanor like she’d somehow suddenly become worried about what Kelly would think of her.

“Hey, whatever it is, it’s ok; we’ll figure it out,” Kelly said quietly hoping that it would help Mack feel more comfortable.

“Andrew Jennings, he’s the captain of the Hockey team. He’s been giving me shit for years, always bothering me. No one has ever done anything about it. I can ignore it most of the time. But today, I was helping out this girl on the team with math, and he just went too far. I snapped.” Mack said quietly.

“What did he say?” Kelly asked.

“Well, he’s always given me crap about being gay, I don’t care, he’s stupid, I just ignore, but today he started a rumor that the only reason why Sara, that’s the girl I tutor, only made the team because she….” Mack said not wanting to finish, “Let’s just say he was saying horrible things about her, which aren’t true. And you know, she’s only a 9th grader. I couldn’t take it anymore. So, I confronted him, told him to pick on someone his size, to just leave the girl out of it. He just kept going on about me protecting my girlfriend…blah blah. So, I hit him; then I kicked him. His friends came to his rescue” Mack said with her hand pointing to her face and knee.

“Now Mackenzie, I know that you are upset, but there is no reason to accuse a nice boy like Andrew of such terrible things. I know you sometimes have a temper,” Principal Martin started to say when Mack interrupted him.

“I don’t have a temper, Mr. Martin. I know you think because I live at The House, I’m some damaged emotionally disabled person. I am not. I have reported Andrew’s behavior to you and Ms. Campbell, she’s the guidance counselor,” she said turning to Kelly;  “so many times, and you just let him go, saying boys will be boys. He’s single-handedly won this school the last two state championships in Hockey, I know that, but he’s also an asshole and a bigot.” Mack said speaking up for herself.

Kelly was too shocked by the whole thing to say anything. First by what Mack said this kid had done to her, then by watching her stand up for herself to this man.

“Is that true?” Kelly asked the principal, “has Mack reported this kid before?”

“Well I know that she’s come to the guidance counselor with concerns about him, I just assumed it was a petty teenager thing. Like jealous girlfriend stuff. I just assumed it would blow over.” Principal Martin said defending himself.

“I’m pretty sure that when someone carves "die dyke die," into your locker door it’s more than just petty teenager shit,” Mack said quietly. “As well as the fact I made it clear he was making fun of my sexuality the first time I reported him. I did _not_ date him.”

Kelly scrubbed his hands over his face, he was in soooo over his head and then made a split-second decision, “I’m going to assume there is some law against this kid’s behavior and assume that you’ll be taking appropriate disciplinary actions against him for today’s behavior as well as previously reported behavior.” Kelly stood helping Mack up, he pulled out his wallet and threw a card down on the principal’s desk, “That’s Erin Lindsay’s card, a detective in the CPD intelligence unit, her father Hank Voight” Kelly said waiting for what he knew would be recognition of the name before he continued,” is the head of that unit. They are good friends; you tell them I told you to call and report sexual harassment and hate speech. They’ll help you take care of the necessary steps to resolve this issue and resolve what I can only assume is several crimes and breaking of some educational laws.” Kelly said seriously. He also pulled his card out, “call when it’s all taken care of, and disciplinary action has been addressed. I’m taking her to the doctor.” Kelly said quietly and sternly leading out the door and helping Mack who was much more injured than she’d ordinally let on now that they were outside. He helped her down the stairs and into his car before going around the other side and sliding into the driver’s seat.

Kelly sat there for a moment contemplating what had just happened,” why didn’t you tell me? I could have helped earlier.” He said quietly.

Mack leaned her head back against the passenger seat headrest, “It was never awful, he’d write stupid shit and say stupid shit. I reported it. No one ever did anything; his father is an alderman. It’s going to be the gay foster kid’s word against the hockey star. It felt like shit, but I could handle you know? But that girl today, she’s just a 9th grader. She has no idea what she wants to be when she grows up;  never mind who she may or may not go to bed with; It didn’t seem fair.” She said quietly. “I punched him, like Boden had taught me with the heavy bag, then kicked him in the balls. His friends weren’t too happy about that” Mack said quietly.

Kelly sighed, “let’s go to Med and get you checked out,” he said starting his car.

“I can’t go to Med; I have Medicaid, I have to go to Mercy or Provident,” Mack said quietly, knowing that while Med was the better hospital, it was also private, and Miranda had been teaching her about her medical care for when she transitioned out of foster care.

“You let me worry about that. My buddies at Med will take care of you” Kelly said as he pulled onto the main street and drove them over to the hospital. He parked in the Emergency room visitor lot and climbed out of his car and went around to help Mack out. They walked into the ER slowly, Connor Rhodes happened to be coming in at the same time as them. He may be a cardio-thoracic fellow, but he was also an attending in the ER and Kelly was a good friend.

“Severide!” Connor said looking at the girl. He’d heard about Kelly’s new shadow. Mainly from the ribbing, Kelly received at Molly’s after shift. He always noticed how Kelly would take the ribbing good-naturedly but also saw how Kelly spoke of the girl and his clear thoughts about her.

“Connor help me out; this is Mack, she had a bit of a dust-up at school,” Kelly said, now letting all his worry seep through.

“Maggie, get me a gurney!” Connor called from the waiting room.

Before Kelly knew what was happening, Mack was being put on a gurney and wheeled into a room. Maggie put her hand on his chest to say, ‘wait here,’ “I am not leaving her alone,” Kelly said with such conviction that Maggie knew she’d end up flat on her back if she tried to keep Kelly away any longer, she stepped out of the way and let him follow.

Once in the room, nurses were flurrying around her, while Connor did his exam pressing and prodding at her while asking where it hurt, when he pressed at her ribs, she hissed and moved away.

 “Mack,” she said as a way of introduction, “This asshole at school was bugging one of my teammates, his friends didn’t quite like me kicking him in the nuts and punching him,” Mack said with the blunt and to the point tone Kelly had come to know and appreciate about her.

“Glad to know someone wasn’t going to let the kid get away with that, “Connor said fondly, knowing that Kelly was the same way. They’d gotten to know each other over the years, through their time at Molly’s. Connor now considered Kelly one of his good friends. He’d always appreciated the way Kelly seemed to come to the defense of the underdog.

“My soccer coach isn’t going to be very happy, we play our biggest rival this weekend,” Mack said looking worried about her knee, which by this time had swelled quite significantly. She thanked the lord she had chosen to wear her boy underwear and a sports bra that day as the nurses had only taken a second to cut off her jeans and her shirt.

“Mack, when your coach hears why you’re injured, I’m sure she’ll be fine,” Kelly said coming up to the side of her bed. He had been standing off to the side as to not be in the way while they got Mack situated, but now that things seemed to calm down a little, he moved to be right next to her and let her know that she had support.

“I texted Miranda, she is all the way on the other side of town, so it'll be a while until she gets here,” Kelly said by way of trying to keep Mack’s mind off what was happening.

Mack bit her bottom lip and took a deep breath before looking at Kelly, “Ok thanks, I don’t know what I’m going to be able to do at the firehouse, but can I still come next shift?” Mack said assuming Kelly was getting ready to leave.

Kelly realized what Mack was thinking and pulled up a stool to sit down, “Mack, we can worry about that later, let’s just make sure you’re ok right now. Matt is coming down with lunch, what do you want on your sandwich?” Kelly said, making it clear he was not leaving.

“Oh, he doesn’t have to do that, you guys were just on shift, you must be exhausted, I’ll be ok,” She said going into self-protective mode.

“Mack, I’m not leaving you in a hospital by yourself after getting attached,” Kelly said leaving no room for argument. With that statement, the floodgates opened. Mack started sobbing and didn’t stop. Kelly, alarmed at the always composed, always in control of her emotions teen didn’t know what to do for a minute before jumping up on the side of her bed and bringing her into a hug. It was the first time they’d hugged. Sure they’d fist bumped, Kelly had squeezed her shoulder in a sign that she was doing well on a particular drill or call, but it felt like there was a shift. Connor was going to walk back into the room to the X-rays going when saw the girl sobbing in Kelly’s arms, Kelly, having seen the doc held up his hand to say give him 5 minutes. “Hey, it’s ok, you’re going to be ok,” Kelly said quietly. He wasn’t entirely out of his element and trying to imagine Matt would do. Matt was the more touchy-feely type. He’d know what to, where the hell was he with lunch?!

After a couple of minutes, Mack’s crying slowed and she began to take some deep breaths. She leaned back on the hospital and wiped the back of her against her face to wipe off the tears, wincing when she pressed too hard against the black eye. “Sorry, I, I’m so used to dealing with things myself. Miranda is great, don’t get me wrong. But there are 12 of us in that house; there is only so much time Miranda has.” Mack said by way of explanation.

Kelly nodded silently before getting Mack’s eye contact, “anytime you need something Mack, you call me. I don’t care if it’s 2 am on day-off, you need me, and I’ll be there, ok?” Kelly said quietly as Connor and Matt walked in at the same time.

“I brought food,” Matt said holding up the bag of sandwiches from their favorite place.

“You bring me any?” Connor asked sarcastically.

Matt met his sarcasm with a self-important smirk, “In fact, I did, smoked turkey on sourdough, with bacon, cheddar, tomato, and lettuce,” Matt said handing the sandwich over to Connor.

Connor was surprised that Matt remembered his order, “thanks,” he said putting the sandwich aside. “Mack, hold off eating for a bit? We’re bringing you up for X-rays, I don’t think you’ll need surgery for anything, but let’s be on safe side ok?” He said taking her sandwich out of Matt’s hands before Mack could grab it and put on the bedside table.   
Mack pouted and glared at Kelly and Matt, “if I have to wait to eat, that means you two do too.” She said. Connor looked at all of them, “I’ll have her back as soon as I can,” he said stepping on the peddle to release the wheels on the bed and wheel her out of the room toward X-ray.

It turned out that she knew was just strained, nothing torn or broken, to which Mack replied, “can I have my sandwich now?” which got a laugh out of the group. Miranda finally showed up to take care of the insurance issues and sign all the papers that were required, given that Mack was a minor. She’d given verbal permission to Dr. Rhodes on the phone for Kelly to receive information until she got there. After being reassured that she would be fine aside from the bumps and bruises, it was time to leave. Miranda and Matt walked ahead of Kelly and Mack as to give them a moment alone. Kelly was pushing her in a wheelchair, while she carried the crutches Dr. Rhodes gave her along with reams of paper on aftercare.

As they got through the hospital doors, Kelly stopped the wheelchair and kneeled in front of Mack, “You going to be ok?” he asked concerned.

Mack looked at him and bit her lip, “Yeah, Miranda already said she'd had a conversation with Principal Martin apparently whoever that Voight person you talked about is, scared him into action. I haven’t read them yet, but I have like a million texts from the team. I’ll be okay Sev, I promise,” Mack said quietly. About a month ago, he had been in his quarters getting some paperwork completed when Mack knocked on his door, ‘Lieutenant’ she’d asked to his attention. Kelly had turned to her and smiled, ‘Mack, it’s Severide or Sev, I think we’re beyond the official title thing at this point.” He said smiling before answering her question. She didn’t always call him that, usually when it was just the two of them or with Matt and Shay, she didn’t want the other Explorers thinking she was getting preferential treatment. But the connection she had with Kelly; she thought maybe it a connection she’d have long after she aged out of the system.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did anyone catch the hint I dropped on the status of Sevacy? :-). Don't worry you'll get the full series of events in another chapter.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I struggled with this one. Hopefully, it works for everyone! Any feedback is welcome

#  Chapter 6

 

It took Mack a few days to recover, she couldn’t play in the team’s game that Saturday but was on the bench and named an honorary captain. The whole 1st shift crew came out to watch. Principal Martin had contacted the intelligence unit as Kelly “suggested” he do. The situation became a little bit of a mess when Andrew Jennings’s father, the alderman, had heard of this movie. As one could imagine, he wasn’t too pleased that his son was **_not_** getting special treatment. Hank Voight was all for wheeling and dealing to get what he thought needed to be done, but when it came to people picking on others, particularly the “underdog,” he had no patience. Erin had told Kelly that when Alderman Jennings had come to the 21st to “chat” with Voight, the Sargent wouldn’t even meet with him, told Platt to keep him downstairs and had sent Halstead down to see what he wanted. 

Once it became clear to Principal Martin that there were potential legal implications for him, including jail, he quickly got in line with Voight and the Illinois Agency of Education. Mack was a little surprised how far up the food chain the whole thing went, but glad that steps were being taken to address the issues she’d been dealing with by herself for years. By the time she returned to school the following week there was new leadership at the school. In the course of a week, the vibe of the school was drastically different, Mack could tell.

Even though she was limited in her movement, Chief Boden had her continue to come to Explorers shifts. Kelly and he had talked, he knew what happened and didn’t want her to miss the connection time she had with those of House 51 Shift 1. The girl had grown on him, she was quiet and somewhat shy, but she gave as good as she got, typically in the form of wicked zingers when you least expected it.

The other thing he liked about Mack was that he saw how much Severide had grown in the role of mentor. Chief Boden felt that Kelly’s role as her mentor had impacted his role as lieutenant significantly. He was becoming a more active Lieutenant, looking for ways to be connected to his team, the house and the CFD beyond his previous laidback attitude. He’d always been a good lieutenant, now becoming a great one. He was drilling his crew more actively, leading more professional development when not on calls. Squad 3 had become the go-to squad for rescues in the 5 months since Kelly had come Mack’s mentor.

In the aftermath of Benny’s death, Grissom had reached out to Boden, they’d come to a tentative truce, even grabbing at drink together at Molly’s a few times. After a particularly impressive rescue last week, Grissom mentioned Kelly and the word Captain in the same sentence, which got Boden’s attention.

_The previous week at Molly’s_

_“Boden,” Grissom said by way of saying and grabbing a stool at the bar._

_“Gris,” Boden said nodding at Hermann to get Grissom a beer._

_“I heard Severide’s crew had quite the call today,” Grissom said accepting the beer._

_“Yeah, narley crash, they used the new extrication technique they’ve been drilling on. Severide said it went off without a hitch. The victim will lose her leg, but she’ll live, and she’s not paralyzed.” Boden said._

_“Mmmmm, that’s what I heard. Clearwater at Rescue 5 wants to have his crew do the same training. I’m thinking of asking Kelly to do the trainer course, so he can train all the squads.” Grissom said, “You think he’d be into that?” Grissom asked._

_Boden nodded his head and thought for a moment, “I can mention it, I think it would be something he’d be interested in.”_

_“Is it just me, or has that girl been just as much as a good influence on him as he’s supposed to be on her” Grissom asked wryly._

_Boden chuckled, “not just you.” He said succinctly._

_“I was in a budget meeting the other day, leadership is thinking about adding a Captain for Squads in your district,” Grissom said as an opening._

_Boden looked up at Gris with surprise, “really?” Boden asked._

_“Yeah,” Grissom said leaving the open the possibility that he was thinking of Severide for that position._

 

Boden kept the information about the new position to himself. Before Benny, when Grissom was giving Kelly so much trouble about not trying to move up the ranks, Kelly had made it clear that was not part of his goals. Boden did not want to make Kelly think he’d gotten on that bandwagon. In fact, he felt that Grissom had softened since Benny’s death toward what Kelly truly wanted, he felt that Grissom would be ok if Kelly chose not to take the promotion, although Boden did not think Kelly would say no to this type of promotion, especially if it included the training component. Boden still didn’t trust Grissom that much, but he could tell the what Benny had said to him had an impact and felt that his own position at Firehouse 51 was safe for the foreseeable future despite what Grosch had said when leaving.

The fall progressed with no other close calls for the crew of Firehouse 51. Mack recovered and continued as an Explorer and Kelly’s mentee. After the attack incident, their connection grew beyond the firehouse. Kelly went out of his way to make Mack feel welcome at the firehouse and the apartment. He was actively helping her think about life after high school. She was only a sophomore, but it was never too late to start. She’d taken to hanging out Kelly, Matt and Shay’s apartment as much as possible. The Martin House was getting crowded. The room she used to have to herself now housed two other girls in middle school. They were not as even-tempered as she was and often provoked fights among the other residents. Mack tried to keep the peace as one of the older residents but after a while she got just as sick of it as the other teens residents and just tried to avoid being at Martin as much as possible, which is how she found herself sandwiched between Matt and Kelly in the common room on Thanksgiving having one of the best holidays she ever remembered.

“You do know that is my foot you are trying to play footsie with, right?” Mack whispered in Kelly’s ear while leaning over to grab a roll. She must not have said quite enough because Shay, who was on Kelly’s other side burst out laughing so hard she began choking.

Kelly had the decency to look embarrassed and hooked his legs around the legs of his chair, “sorry” he mumbled. He and Matt had tried to keep their relationship on the DL so far, so he hoped no one else heard her comment to him.

“No problem just didn’t think it would be fair to Matt,” Mack said laughing and responding to Shay’s high five. Mack and Shay had developed quite a habit of making fun of the two men and their propensity for being attached in some manner when not at the Firehouse.

“Hey, what’s so funny?” Hermann asked seeing the little group chuckling to themselves across the table. Matt and Kelly blushed.

“Nothing,” Kelly said whacking Mack on the side of the arm good-naturedly.

Boden cleared his throat, everyone had their food, time was of the essence, they didn’t know when the bells would go off again, “Okay, everyone has their food?” he asked, “we ready?” The crew was ready they knew what was coming. Boden had started the tradition of everyone naming something they were thankful for, taking a moment to say out loud what brought them joy at this time of the year.

As they went around the table a lot of the crew said family, the firehouse, spouses, for different reasons but it all came down to these people were thankful for the connections they had, and they felt it was important for people around them hear it.

Kelly looked at Matt, Shay, and Mack, “I am thankful for my firehouse family, I am thankful for the opportunity to bring new people into my life, into this life, “Kelly said looking at Mack, so she’d know he was talking about her. “Most of all I am thankful for friendships and connections,” he said quietly so Matt knew he was talking about him and Shay.

It was Mack’s turn now, she was nervous, but she knew what she was going to say the minute Boden spoke, “I am thankful for all of you, I am thankful to have found this place. Most of all I am thankful to you Kelly,” Mack said turning to look directly at her mentor, maybe at this point her best friend. Sure, he was 20 years older than her and sometimes had the emotional maturity of a 5-year-old, but at this point in their connection went way beyond Squad Lieutenant and CFD Explorer. Mack blushed with embarrassment, but Kelly just leaned over and hugged her from the side, “right back at you kid” Kelly whispered in her ear to let her know he appreciated her willingness to open about their connection.

They got most of the way through their meal when the bells rang for a call, a large house fire that had erupted when someone tried to fry a turkey **_in_** their apartment. The call lasted late into the night. Luckily everyone in the building was able to get out safely and none of the crew from 51 were put in danger. Engine 51, Truck 81 and Squad 3 pulled into the firehouse around 1 am and all the crew went to the bunkroom to get some sleep. Matt couldn’t sleep though, it always took him a while to come down from a “fire high” so he slipped into Kelly’s office when he saw that the desk lamp was still on after laying in his bed trying to sleep.

“I can’t sleep,” Matt said quietly as he walked into Kelly’s space and laid on his bed. Kelly, also wide awake turned from his desk to look at Matt, “six across, hook-shaped ski-lift,” Kelly said. They’d take to do the crosswords Kelly always had together lately. Finding solace in the quiet work of figuring something out together.

“J-bar,” Matt said quietly, remembering the trip to the Michigan ski trip his family took when he was little before everything went to hell. Kelly moved his desk chair to the side of his bed, putting his feet up on Matt’s lap. They sat quietly working on the puzzle, Matt playing with the string on Kelly’s’ sock feeling good about the place of comfort with each other.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got another chapter complete. Don't hate :/.  
> As always feedback welcome. Enjoy!

The holiday season went quickly that year before anyone knew it was the new year and they were in the coldest part of the year for Chicago. Putting up with the bitter cold while recovering from the holiday season was tough on the whole house. Kelly and Matt had decided to tell their firehouse family about their relationship just before Christmas. They didn’t have a choice given that one night on shift Matt had had a bad nightmare and Kelly had been the one to calm him down, which required him to gather Matt in his arms and hold him tightly for over an hour.  The noise had woken most of the house up and while they knew the captain and lieutenant were close, watching their captain be snuggled into a hug by Kelly led them to believe that there might be more to the connection the two leaders had than anyone in the house originally thought.

The next morning, just before their shift ended Matt pulled his crew on 81 and Hermann’s crew on 51 together with Severide’s Squad 3 into the meeting room.

_“Look, first I want to apologize for waking everyone up last night, I don’t know what brought that on,” Matt started looking very embarrassed._

_“No problem Casey! We’ve all been there!” Hermann spoke up, hoping to put the captain at ease._

_“I’m not normally one to broadcast my personal life over the whole house after today, I really don’t want to have to have another discussion, but most of you saw Kelly help me last night” Matt started, using Kelly’s first name, which no one EVER did, another signal something was different. Just as he was about to put the words together, Kelly stepped forward from his usual place against the back wall._

_“Matt and I are in a relationship. That should clarify everything for you all from last night.” Kelly blurted out trying to save Matt who was looking increasingly uncomfortable with the prospect of talking about this with the entire crew._

_The room was silent for a minute before Mouch looked around at everyone and realized no one knew what to say, being one of the longest serving firefighters at 51 he felt an obligation to keep things calm and low key. “Who’s up for meeting at Molly’s tonight? That fire was intense!” Mouch said as a signal that it whatever with Severide and Casey was going on was not up for discussion. Immediately the others of Firehouse 51 got the clue and stood to make plans for that evening, as they all had the next day off._

_Soon it was just Shay, Matt and Kelly and Boden standing. The two leaders were looking at their Battalion Chief with a little trepidation; they probably should have told him a while ago._

_“Shay gives me a minute with these two,” Boden said looking at Paramedic in Charge on 61._

_Shay picked up her bag and looked at her roommates “Sure thing Chief, meet you at the car?” she said to Matt and Kelly._

_Kelly pulled the keys to his car out of his front pocket, “Yeah, we’ll be out in a minute” he said tossing the keys to Shay. Before turning back to his Battalion chief and stuffing his hands in his pockets; nervous about what Boden would say but trying to put up a brave front._

_Boden assessed his leaders, the two men (along with Hermann); he trusted them implicitly to get any jobs for Firehouse 51 done with the utmost professionalism. He trusted these men with his life, with the lives of everyone in his Battalion. He tried to give them a hard star, but after a second, he couldn’t keep it up and cracked a smile, “a little warning next time?” he said holding his hand out to shake Kelly and Matt’s hand. Both Kelly and Matt let a colossal sigh out, they didn’t THINK it would be a problem, but one never know how people will react._

_“Sorry Chief,” Kelly said having the decency to look a little sheepish._

_“Sorry Chief,” Matt echoed Kelly._

_“Not another thought, I trust you both implicitly, this is my house, and I say it is not a problem, if you run into one let me know,” Boden said feeling the need to recognize that there may some who do not agree with Kelly and Matt’s choices either because of the male/male issue or the captain/lieutenant issue._

_“Sure thing,” Kelly said picking up his bag again._

_“get out of here, see you both Molly’s tonight,” Boden said._

_They both smiled and left, Matt had some work at a job across town to do, and Kelly wanted to head over to the marine store by the marina to look for some new cleats._

Christmas was a festive occasion; the crew had this holiday off as they’d worked Thanksgiving. They’d decided to do a “Firehouse Family” holiday get together at Molly’s on the 26th. Hermann closed the bar to outsiders and invited their extended family and friends to celebrate. When Kelly showed up with Matt and Shay and saw that Mack wasn’t there, he’d called her to find out what was going on. She’d assumed that it was a “full firefighter” thing and was not invited (despite how much she’d wanted to go). Kelly told her to be ready in 10 minutes and left to go pick her up. Letting her know that in his mind, she was a member of 51 for as long as she wanted to be.

***********************************************

Middle of January

**Ambulance 61, Engine 51, Truck 81, Squad 3, Battalion Chief 25 house fire corner of West Fillmore and South Loomis**

The bells rang within 5 minutes of their shift starting. It was -15 with windchill outside, the weather was brutal out. Kelly ran to the Squad 3 rig and jumped in the front seat, pulling on his headset to hear what information they had from dispatch as Tony expertly steered the rig through the streets of Chicago on the way the scene.

“Capp, Cruz you two together, Tony you are on my 6, be careful of ice walking in and out of the house. Watch the equipment, keep the jaws in the rig unless we need it. I don’t have to tell you all how this weather makes all of this more dangerous,” Kelly said keeping his voice level. For some reason he had a sense of dread in the pit of his stomach, he did his best to ignore it, this was a new feeling for him. He couldn’t afford to worry. He was glad Mack wasn’t on this run, she’d had two tests that day, so she wasn’t on shift with them until after school. They’d joked the night before at dinner about how she’d be nice and warm in school but suffering through tests while they’d be freezing but getting to fight fires, Mack contended they were the lucky one.

All of 51 pulled up to the fire and got out, bundling up as much as they could. Hermann immediately got his men going on hooking up the lines to fire hydrants; as it would take more time to open the ice covered hydrants.

Boden took command of the scene and directed Squad 3 to search while 81 worked on creating a vent. They immediately went to work, knowing that they did not have much time gave the color of the smoke coming from the roof and the flames jumping out the top windows.

Twenty minutes later squad had gotten the two families who lived the house out except for Kelly who had stayed to coax a little girl out of the closet which was scared.

“Severide, status” Boden said in a commanding voice.

“Chief I got a little girl up here who won’t come out of the closet, give me 5 minutes,” Severide said into his walkie starting feel the heat of the fire.

“You have 3,” Boden said firmly,

“Hey, I know you are scared, but I am here to keep you safe, what’s your name?” Kelly screamed above the loud noise of the fire.

“Sarah,” the girl said through coughs

“Sarah? I’m Kelly, here hold on to me, I promise I will keep you safe” Kelly screamed and pulled the little girl into his arms not giving her much choice in leaving the closet. Kelly wrapped her up as tightly as he could and turned to go back down the stairs and out of the house. As he ran down the stairs, he heard the telltale sounds of cracking wood and felt the staircase give out beneath him, he and the little girl were falling through the air toward the concrete first floor before he could grab onto anything. Kelly had the presence of mind to do his best to shift so that his body took the brunt of the crash into the floor. As the stairs gave way Tony and Capp had come through the door to assist their lieutenant with the rescue, they were eyewitnesses to the horrifying site of Severide falling through the air.

“Mayday, Mayday, Chief, the stairs gave way, Severide is down!” Capp radioed out to Boden, “I repeat, Severide is down!” Capp screamed into the radio as he ran to his toward his Lieutenant. He and Tony slid down to their knees in order to check on Severide and the girl in his arms. His PASS alarm was blaring even above the roar of the fire. Less than a minute later the crew of truck 81 were in the front of the house with backboards and C-collars for Severide and the girl. She’d woken up and started crying as Tony had peeled an unconscious Severide’s arms open to get the death grip off the girl. Capp, Otis, and Cruz worked on securing the little girl while Casey, Tony and Shay, who’d thrown on her turnout coat when she heard it was Kelly who had fallen.

“Kelly! Kelly! Hold on!” Shay screamed at him as they worked like lightning to get him on the backboard and out of the house. The three of them ran out of the burning building and right up to the back of Ambulance 61. Brett was already in the driver’s seat ready to go when Shay gave her the signal.

“Shay, talk to me!” Boden said looking at his lieutenant strapped to a board and unconscious.

“He has a pulse it’s weak and thready, respirations are shallow,” Shay said as she tore open his shirt and slapped two AED pads on his chest. She could already see the bruising on his lower left abdomen. As soon as she turned the heart monitor on, it’s started beeping like crazy.

“Chief!” Matt said at the back of the ambulance asking without words if he could go with Shay.

“I got this, go!” Boden said.

Casey jumped in the back and pulled the doors closed. Boden hit the end twice, and Shay screamed to Brett to step on it. She was doing all she could not think about the fact this was Kelly on her gurney, he best friend, her brother. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t help the tears that were leaking out of her eyes as she worked on her brother.

“Kelly, listen to me….you have to hang on, we’re on our way to Med!” Shay said as she looked at the heart monitor and grabbed some medicine slamming it into the IV, she’d just set in his arm. Not the cleanest of her work, but decent consider Brett was careening down Loomis Avenue, at least 70 MPH with her hand on the horn the whole time.

Shay worked quietly talking to Kelly the whole time despite him not opening his eyes. He groaned when she’d rubbed his sternum and Matt felt a slight grip on his hand as he sat off to the side. Before either of them knew it, Brett was careening into the ER bay at Med and rushing into the ER where they met by Connor and Becker.

“Connor! It’s Kelly!” Shay exclaimed before jumping into her report, “Male, 35, firefighter, fell from the second story when stairs gave way. GCS 5 has a slight grip in his hand. Pulse weak and thready, Respirations shallow and weak. Compound fracture of the right upper leg did not hit the femoral artery” Shay said as they ran into the ER.

“Shay, we got him! We’re in Bagdad! Now!” Connor said taking over before the nurses shut the door on Shay and Casey. Maggie came over to greet them.

“Hey, Connor’s got him, come on with me,” Maggie said leading both Shay and Casey to the patient conference room, so they’d have some privacy. Maggie left, and it was just the two of them. Casey collapsed into a chair, the suspenders of his turnout gear clanking on the metal chair. He leaned over and put in his head in his hands, beyond speechless. Shay said next to him in a similar position with her hand on his knee lending silent support. They sat there for what felt like forever before the rest of 51 arrived on mass looking terrified.

“Anything?” Hermann asked worriedly.

“No, Connor and Becker are working on him. He was alive when we left him. Hand a pulse and was breathing. I didn’t have to intubate. He broke his femur, so I know he’ll need surgery. Don’t know anything else.” Shay said with a shaky voice trying to hold it together. She succeeded until 10 minutes later when Emily ran into the hospital, having heard the call over the radio.

“Shay!” she said running to gather Shay into her arms. Upon seeing Emily, Shay lost all composure she had and sobbed into Emily’s arms while Boden quietly updates the paramedic, whom he’d gotten to know through Shay.

They all stood around waiting for an update when finally, 2 hours later Connor came out looking haggard.

“He’s in surgery. We stabilized him. He’s banged up pretty good. Broken Femur. Broken right arm in multiple places. Bruised spleen and some cracked ribs but he’s stable and breathing, it will take a long time, but he will recover from this.” Connor said to which the entire crew let out a massive sigh of relief.

“He gained consciousness at one point, kept asking for Matt and Mack. I was able to tell him you were fine Matt, but I didn’t know if Mack was with you guys today? I was able to tell him that she wasn’t a patient here at least, which seemed to calm him down. He wanted to know about the little girl. She’s okay, again bumps, bruised, a nasty cut on her forehead and broken clavicle but Kelly defiantly took the brunt of that fall. He saved her life.” Connor said seriously. “Surgery is going to be at least another couple of hours. I’ll come to get you when he’s in recovery or if something comes up.” Connor said shaking Matt’s hand.

“Thank you so much,” Matt said with a shaky voice, the reality of him losing Kelly just hitting that minute. “Mack’s not on shift today; she wasn’t there.” He said by way of explaining where “Kelly’s shadow” as they’d all taken to calling her was. Realizing that someone needed to tell Mack what was going on with Kelly Matt turned to Boden.

“She’s at school; she was going to stop by the house to ride out the other half of shift with the house. Something about a Bio test Kelly wouldn’t let her skip” Matt said with wide eyes. In the months that they’d been together and Kelly’s relationship with Mack and solidified, Matt had taken to the girl almost as much as Kelly had. They’d become quite the unit.

Matt knew he should go to the school and get Mack, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave the hospital in case something happened. Shay was in no shape to be delivering the news as she was still quietly sobbing in Emily’s arms.

Boden nodded, “I’ll go pick her up, she goes to Whitney Young right?” Boden said looking at Casey and Shay.

“Yeah, I’ll text Miranda from the house now, she should be able to call ahead and excuse her,” Matt said pulling his cell phone out.

Boden turned and spoke quietly to Hermann, letting him know that he’d taken Firehouse 51 out of services, so they were not expected to go back to shift, they did, however, need to bring the rigs back to the house so their relief could go on shift. Hermann nodded and told Boden he’d take care of it. He gathered the men of Squad, 51 and Truck 81 to let them know what was up. They’d be heading back to the house to quick change and come right back to the hospital.

Before they knew it was just Casey, Shay, Emily and Brett, who’d just returned from the call with the other victims waiting in the waiting room for Severide. t was going to be a long day.


	8. Chapter 8

#  Chapter 8

Chief Boden pulled up in front Mack’s high school with a screech of tires. He jumped out of the truck and ran up the stairs toward the front door. He hadn’t even taken his turnout gear off before he’d sped off from Chicago Med. He knew how much Kelly meant to Mack. He knew how much Mack meant to Kelly and Matt and Shay. Really the girl had grown on all of them. They missed her when she wasn’t around asking when she’d be on shift again.

Boden walked into the front office and looked at the secretary, “I’m here to pick up Mack Hudson, the director of her group home should have called,” Boden said trying to keep his emotions in check.

Just as the secretary was about to pick up the phone, ostensibly to call Mack down the office, the principal walked into the office and looked Chief Boden up and down, “I’m the principal, what seems to be the problem.” He said.

“I’m here to pick up Mack Hudson, her mentor Kelly Severide was hurt on shift and is in the hospital. We felt she should be with him at this time.” Boden said explaining himself again.

“I really don’t think it’s appropriate that Mackenzie miss school for Mr. Severide to receive some stitches. I’m sure she can meet up with him later. I know that she has become a member of the CFD’s Explorer’s program, but that does not mean she can just skip school whenever she wants.” The principal said with disdain. He’d gotten in a lot of trouble as a result of Mack and as such held a grudge against her.

Boden’s eyes widened with surprise, “Well first, _Lieutenant_ Severide is in surgery, with extensive injuries. Second, I believe Mack’s guardian determine that it was important for Mack to be at the hospital and I believe has already called her out.  I am here to bring her, is that going to be a problem?” Boden said standing up tall, and towering over the principal.

While Boden was putting the principal in his place the secretary had already called down to Mack’s classroom. She didn’t even wait for the principal’s response. “I’ve just called her down from her math class, she should be just one minute.”

Boden turned to the women and smiled, “thank you.” He said

Five awkward minutes went by before Mack walked into the office looking worried about why she was called down, when she saw Boden, she looked terrified. “Chief Boden!” Mack said with worry in her voice. Why was he here? What was wrong?

“Hey, Severide took a fall, he’s at the hospital. Miranda called you out. I’m here to take you there.” He said walking up and hugging the girl.

“Is Sev okay?” Mack said with worry in her voice.

“He will be, he’s pretty banged up, in surgery now. Come on I’ll bring you to the hospital. Casey and Shay are there waiting for you.” Boden said holding the door open for her to walk back out. He looked at the principal about to make a snide remark then thought better of it.

Boden walked down the front steps of the school with his arm around Mack’s shoulders, opening the passenger door for her to climb into his Battalion car. He went around to the other side and quickly checked his cell before starting up his car. There were no updates from Casey or Shay, no news was good news at this point in his mind.

“Mack, Dr. Rhodes worked on him. He said Severide is going to pull through. He’s going to in rehab for a long time and probably a pain in the ass to deal with, but he’s going to be okay.” Boden said driving as fast as he could without breaking laws and policy since he was in a CFD vehicle.

Mack laughed and little and looked up at the Chief, “thanks for coming to get me,” she said quietly.

“Of course, Kelly would want you there,” Boden said as he drove across the city. Fifteen minutes later he was parking his car in the visitor lot and bringing Mack into the hospital up the surgical waiting room where he knew they were waiting. Some of the guys from 51 made it back to the hospital by then they were changed out of their turn-out gear but clearly, none of them showered and it was obvious that they’d all rushed through dressing given the disarray their clothes were in.

“Matt!” Mack cried out and she walked into the waiting room and right into Matt’s arms. He still had his gear on, unwilling to leave even to the bathroom in order to change into the clothes Hermann had found in his quarters for him.

“Hey, he’s going to be okay,” Matt said as a way of greeting the girl.

“What happened?’ Mack asked as she sat down in between Shay and Matt.

“You know Sev, he was taking his sweet time leaving the house again,” Shay said trying to make a joke. Mack had slept over at the apartment the week prior and on the way to shift the following morning, Kelly kept forgetting things and running back inside, he didn’t hear the end of it all shift. “he was getting a little girl out of the closet, she was scared. The stairs gave way under his weight. He took the brunt of the fall to protect the little one.” Shay said seriously. “He’s got a broken leg, a multiple breaks in his arm and he looks like he was on the wrong end of a boxing match, but he’s going to be ok.” Shay said with all the medical authority she could muster in her voice.

They sat around for another couple of hours, there was some chatting and joking around but as the hours wore on, the crew was starting to get nervous, why was surgery for his leg taking so long? Finally, Connor walked out with a doctor no one recognized.   


Everyone instantly jumped up and stood with trepidation, “How is he” Matt asked tentatively.

“He’s in recovery,” Connor said before turning to his colleague, “This is Dr. Sloan, he’s our chief of orthopedics here at Med, he did most of the work on Severide,” Connor said letting the surgeon take over the update.

“Sorry for the delay, I was having a hard time with the alignment of his arm. Dr. Rhodes told me how important his job is to the lieutenant, so I wanted to make sure I got it right.  Lieutenant Severide suffered a comminuted fracture of his right humorous, I was able to realign the bone with a plate and some screws.  The femur realignment went very smoothly. I used 3 plates and _a_ lot of screws. I put an external fixator on as well, which will remain in place for about two weeks. I want to give the bone plenty of time to set and begin the healing process before I allow him any movement of that leg. With rest and rehab, he should recover full range of motion and strength. He’s stable, in recovery. I am going to keep sedated for the next 24 hours to give him a chance to rest pain-free.  The road will be long, but he should make a full recovery.” Dr. Sloan said.

Matt stepped forward, “Thank you so much,” he said shaking the doctor’s hand. “It’s my pleasure, are you Captain Casey?” Dr. Sloan asked looking at his paperwork. “Yes,” Matt said quietly.

“I’d like to keep visitors to a minimum at first, but his next of kin, it says Captain Casey and a Leslie Shay. And a daughter Mackenzie Hudson?” Dr. Sloan said looking up at the group. Luckily, they were all so shocked no one said anything, “you’re welcome to come up and see him,” Dr. Sloan said before walking away.

Connor looked at all of them a little sheepish, “I knew he was only going to let next of kin on Kelly’s forms up. It was all I could think of at the moment,” he said winking.

Mack smiled and let herself be hugged by Shay. She couldn’t help a little of her heartbreak though. Having Kelly and Matt and Shay as parents would be a dream come true. Maybe not the traditional family she’d wished for when she was little, but she considered them very much her family now, to live with them and call them parents would be the ultimate.

Boden took charge as everyone starting chatting, clearly relieved that Severide would be ok. “Okay, you all heard the doctor, Severide will not be available for visitors, it’s been a long day and we have shifted in 36 hours. Go home and get some rest.” Boden said to his men.

A couple of minutes later after saying good-bye Casey, Shay and Mack headed up to surgical recovery. Emily told Shay to give Kelly her best and then left for her apartment, with the plan for Shay to meet her there later. Matt had called Miranda and let her know what was going on with Kelly. Miranda had given Mack permission to stay with Matt until Kelly was out of the woods and on his way to recovery.

The three of them stayed with Kelly until he was moved to a private room after 2 hours in recovery. He stirred a bit when Matt held his hand but did not wake up. Mack cried a little when seeing Kelly, half his face scraped up, his arm in a full cast and his right leg in traction.

The three of them left around 1 am once they were sure Kelly was settled and would not be waking up anytime soon. Shay grabbed an uber to Emily’s apartment and Matt navigated himself and Mack to his truck, which one of his men had brought over earlier in the day. They got back to the apartment in silence. Matt helped Mack grabbed the pillows and blanket that were in a basket in the corner for when she crashed on the couch before offering her something to eat. They were both so exhausted they weren’t hungry. It was 3 am by the time Matt fell into his bed utterly exhausted but wide awake.

He’d come so close to losing Kelly today and the added devastation of watching Mack was a lot for Matt to handle. After taking a couple of deep breaths in order to calm himself down he quietly padded over to Kelly’s room in order to grab the Squad sweatshirt he secretly loved wearing. It was old and worn out and didn’t actually keep him that warm, but it smelled deeply of Kelly and he loved how it was so big it engulfed him. Before long he was fast asleep in his bed thanking every god he could think of that Kelly was ok.

Matt woke to the smell of coffee and bacon at 10 am the next morning. He sat straight up once he realized what time it was. He quickly changed his clothes and ran out the kitchen wanting to get to the hospital as soon as he could. He froze when he found Mack in their kitchen dancing around to her music as he made him breakfast.

When Matt came into the living room Mack was on the couch reading a textbook and looking at her phone, there was a travel cup of what Matt assumed was coffee on the counter

Matt put her hand on her shoulder and squeezed, “I know, believe me, we feel the same way,” Matt said drinking the rest of his coffee and standing, “come on, let’s go check on Sev, see if he’s joined the land of the conscious yet.”

The ride to Med was as jolly as it could be, Mack asking Matt to give her the details of the fire asking all kinds of technical questions that made Matt smile to himself. She was totally hooked as a firefighter!

Matt and Mack met Shay and Emily just outside Kelly’s hospital room. Emily was in uniform and about to go on shift, Matt and Shay had taken furlough time until they knew how Kelly would be ok. The three went into his room walking up to the man who was still uncurious but appeared to have gotten a little of his color back. They’d switched the full-face O2 mask Kelly had last night for a nasal cannula. His O2 stats and heart appeared to be good. They all pulled up chairs next to Kelly’s bed and sat with him, talking quietly to help him know they were there with him.

Boden and Hermann stopped by mid-morning to bring them coffee and some food and check on Kelly’s status. They didn’t stay long as Dr. Sloan was still limiting visitors, but it was good to be able to tell them Kelly was doing well. Just after lunch, Dr. Sloan tapered his meds in order to have him wake up. He warned that it may take a few hours and Kelly might be disoriented.

“Uhhhhh,” Kelly moaned around 4 just as Mack and Shay had gotten back from a walk around the hospital. Matt was sitting by his side holding his hand while reading his book.

“Hey there,” Matt said standing up and looking down at Kelly who opened his eyes and was blinking getting used to the lights.

“Mack, is Mack ok?” Kelly asked immediately. He’d clearly forgotten that Mack wasn’t on shift with them yesterday morning and since she usually stuck close to him in a fire, he was understandably worried.

“Hey, I wasn’t with you remember, you made me go to school for my science test?” Mack said trying to keep it light, “I’m ok,” Mack said firmly trying to reassure Kelly.

“The girl, the girl, tried to block her impact,” Kelly mumbled. It was so like him to worry about everyone else but himself.

“She’s okay, you make quite a landing pad, cuts, and scrapes, a broken clavicle, but she’s okay,” Shay said holding Kelly’s hand. Kelly nodded and gave a little smirk at Shay.

Kelly was now more lucid, looking up and around, trying to sit up more in bed, Matt grabbed the remote for the bed and slowly raised the head of his bed, so Kelly wouldn’t strain. He looked down at his arm, cast and strapped to his chest to keep movement to an absolute minimum. Looking down he could see his leg was elevation and in the contraption. “What’s the damage?” Kelly asked quietly.

“You broke your femur and your arm in like 3 places. You had surgery yesterday afternoon. You have a couple of cracked ribs as well.” Shay said quietly explaining his injuries to him. Her voice cracked, and Kelly reached up to hold her hand.

“Hey, I’m here, I’m beat up, but I’m here,” Kelly said quietly grabbing Mack’s hand and giving it a squeeze as he saw her tear up listening to Shay’s description even though she already knew it all. He was awake for another 15 -20 minutes before he grew tired and fell asleep again.

When he was sleeping Miranda came to pick up Mack, insisting that she needed to come back to the house and sleep there and was expected to go to school the next day. Miranda felt terrible tearing her away from Kelly, but as her guardian, she only had so much leeway with how much time Mack spent away from the house and out of school.

Shay left soon after promising that she’d be back in the morning. Matt had packed a change of clothes that morning as he planned on staying overnight with Kelly. Kelly woke up later in the evening for about 30 minutes and Matt was so relieved that he’d stayed. They didn’t really talk that much, Matt helped him adjust to get a bit more comfortable and got him some pudding and fudgsicle. Once Kelly fell asleep again Matt went down to the cafeteria to grab some dinner and text with the crew to let them all know how Kelly was. He headed back up around 10 brushed his teeth and pulled the reclining chair as close to Kelly’s bed as possible before curling up to get some sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

#  Chapter 9

Kelly was in the hospital for another two weeks before he could go home with strict instructions to stay off his leg.  The doctor insisted on a  wheelchair, much to his disdain, given that he couldn’t use crutches. Kelly was at home for another two weeks before starting  _light_ physical therapy. A month at home and both Shay and Matt were begging Boden to find _something_ for Kelly to do at the firehouse, he was driving them both insane. Boden promised that once Kelly got the all clear to be on light duty, he’d find something for him to do at the firehouse, even if it was just answering phones.

With Kelly out, Mack was shadowing Matt most of the time on Truck 81 and then would come to the apartment to visit with Kelly, even with Mack coming over and Matt and Shay doing their best to entertain him when not on shift, poor Kelly was going crazy. After the first 3 weeks home, he wasn’t in a lot of pain and given his last foray into pain meds; he avoided them almost all together with this injury. He was mostly uncomfortable and bored out of his mind. He’d decided to take a few online classes through the National Fire Academy, particularly on hazardous materials and a refresher on incident commands for _multi-alarm_ fires, which occupied most of his time. Boden had sent him the course on incident command as a suggestion, which had surprised Kelly as being a Lieutenant he wasn’t often the highest-ranking officer on a call, but given he trusted Boden implicitly, he took his suggestion.

 With Kelly sidelined and unable to _show_ Mack stuff, they often spent their time discussing technique and theory. Kelly grabbed some of his old textbooks from the academy to start teaching Mack some specifics beyond what she was learning during the Explorer’s Program. They also talked about life and Mack’s goals and aspirations. Mack trusted Kelly and his opinion of life so she often asked him for advice, despite the ribbing they’d get from Shay and Matt.

******

Kelly had just gotten back from his 6-week checkup, his arm was _finally_ out of the cast and just in a sling. They finally unlocked the immobilizer brace on his leg,  which meant he could start to work on bending his leg, only up to 20 degrees but it was at least something. He was cleared for _desk duty only!_ He was standing at the kitchen counter looking at the mail when someone started banging on his door frantically.

“Coming, hold on!” Kelly said getting annoyed with whoever was at the door. He opened the door about to give whoever it was a piece of his mind; but stopped himself at Mirand'a frantic face.

“Kelly, thank god, have you seen or heard from Mack?” Miranda asked practically hysterical.

Kelly was instantly worried because now that he thought about it, he _hadn’t_ heard from Mack, which was weird because they usually texted throughout the day. “Come in, what’s going on?” asked leading Miranda into the kitchen and going to look at his phone again.

“She ran away from the house this morning I can’t find her anywhere. She’s not at school; she’s not at 51, I called Connie and asked, I can’t find her anywhere!” Miranda said starting to get desperate.

“Ran away? Why? I know she gets annoyed by her roommates sometimes, but what happened?” Kelly asked alarmed.

“She’s being moved to a different house. It’s over in Irving Park. She’s going to have to switch schools, and I don’t if they’ll allow her to continue the Explorer’s program.” Miranda said devastated by the news.

“Why are they moving her? She’s been at your place since she was like 7, right?” Kelly asked horrified.

“I’m not 100% sure; it has to with numbers and my facility and her age.  I’ve been trying to fight it, but my supervisor called me yesterday to confirm. She’ll be out in two weeks.” Miranda said wiping tears from her eyes.

“I imagine she wasn’t happy?’ Kelly commented.

“No, she wasn’t. I haven’t seen her this angry…. never! She was screaming and finally just ran out of the house. I let her go assuming she’d come here or go to 51. I’m really worried about her.” She said, her voice wobbling,  about to start crying.

“She wouldn’t do anything to hurt herself would she?” Kelly asked hesitantly. Mack didn’t seem the like the girl who had thoughts of hurting herself. She and Kelly had been having some deep conversations about life, past, present and what they wanted for the future. Mack had so many big dreams he was excited to see where she went in life.

“I didn’t get that sense, I have never had to worry about her in that way before. Maybe that’s part of the problem. She’s solid; she doesn’t cause trouble, she has as little trauma as a girl in position could have.”

“I think I know where she is, give me a few hours and then meet me at 51. We’ll figure it all out,” Kelly said formulating a plan in his head that could be considered absurd, but he had to try, which meant he needed to get to the firehouse ASAP. Pulling up his ever-trusty Uber app, which had been getting _way_ too much use lately, he got himself ready to go. “I’ll text you when I have her safe ok?” Kelly said hobbling out of the house with Miranda.

The ride to the firehouse was a quick one, and Kelly was relieved when he saw the trucks on the floor, it meant that Casey and Shay would be there. He stayed outside and texted them to come out. He didn’t have the time to socialize with everyone at that moment.

A minute later, Casey and Shay were walking over to the bench, where Kelly was sitting, with concerned looks on their face.

“What’s wrong?” Matt said worried, as he gave Kelly a hug and a quick kiss.

“Mack is missing,” Kelly said bluntly.

“What? Where! How? Why?” Matt and Shay said in rapid fire over each other.

“Miranda came to the loft looking for her. She ran away from The House this morning, and Miranda can’t find her.” Kelly said trying to stay calm.

“Does she know why Mack was upset?” Casey asked quietly, instantly concerned for their little buddy as they jokingly called her.

“Miranda’s supervisor wants to move Mack across town to another facility over in Irving Park. She’ll have to switch schools, and apparently there is a question of whether she can continue in the Explorer’s program, or even coming to the firehouse and our place,” Kelly said trying to stay calm, even in such a short time, Mack had become like a little sister to him and he was fiercely protective of him.

“Are you fucking serious?” Shay explained, “she’s lived there for so long!”

“Guys, I have a crazy thought right now, and I understand if you think I’ve lost my mind, but I feel like I _need_ to do this,” Kelly said firmly.

“If it’s that you think we should apply to be her foster parents, well then I’m as crazy as you,” Matt said holding Kelly’s hand, intertwining their fingers. Kelly looked at him wide-eyed and amazed.

“I just, I know I’m only supposed to be her mentor, but it feels like more to me like she belongs with us,” Kelly said quietly looking at his boyfriend and best friend/sister. “We’ll probably need to get a new place; she’ll need a room…” Kelly said starting to go off into the logistics of this possibility

“Sev, go find Mack, take care of her, make sure she’s okay and knows we are going to take care of her as best we can,” Matt said calming his boyfriend down, “then we can figure everything else out.”

Kelly sighed, he knew Matt was right. He stood up and pulled his phone out to call up an Uber, this no driving thing was driving him insane as Boden came out and approached them, “You find Mack yet?” he asked concerned.

“No not yet, but I think I know where she is, just got to get a freaking car to bring me,” Kelly said grumbling.

“Severide, get to the truck, I’ll bring you over,” Boden said leaving no room for argument before turning to Casey, “You’re in charge until I get back walking toward his red GMC with Kelly.

They got in the car and pulled out of the Firehouse driveway, “I’m pretty sure she’s at the planetarium. We’ve gone out there a few times, and she was always talking about how peaceful it is there,” Kelly said quietly picking at the string on his leg brace, worried sick about Mack.

They drove the rest of the 15 minutes in silence; Kelly saw Mack sitting on a bench over by the lake immediately. He opened the door and hopped out as best he could before turning to Boden, “Give me 5 minutes,” Kelly said.

Kelly walked over to the edge of the parking lot where Mack was standing looking out across the lake to the Chicago Skyline. She acknowledged him by walking over to the bench 5 feet from them so that Kelly wouldn’t have to stand. They sat for a moment before Kelly spoke.

“Miranda came to the loft, she was pretty worried about you,” Kelly said quietly.

“Just when things were actually going well. If I move, that’s the end of everything that is good in my life. I’ve heard of the place they want me to live. It might as well be Juvie. It’s 50 kids in dormitories. I know a couple of the girls from there.” Mack said quietly.

“Look, I know it sucks; Matt, Shay and I are going to do all we can to fix it, but it’s fucking cold out, and I can only deal with this cold for so long, so would you please come back to the firehouse with Boden and me?” Kelly said quietly.

“You promise?” Mack said quietly looking at Kelly.

“Yes, I promise,” Kelly said with firm conviction.

“Okay, sorry to make you come out here, I know the cold bugs you,” Mack said quietly helping Kelly stand.

“I told you, Mack, no matter where you are, what’s going on, you call me anytime,” Kelly said quietly walking toward Boden’s truck.

The ride back to the firehouse was quiet. When the three of them got back to the firehouse, Mack followed Kelly into the house and into Boden’s office where Shay, Matt, and Miranda were waiting. Boden headed to the Common Room to give them some space.

“Oh Mack, I’m so relieved you’re ok!” Miranda exclaimed giving her a big hug when she came into office before, they all sat down.

“Miranda, I’m sorry I ran away, it’s just I don’t understand why I have to move. I’ve been at Martin House since I was 7!” Mack said quietly tearing up.

“Mack, I’m so sorry, I’m not 100% sure why this is happening either. I’ve tried repeatedly to get this reversed,” Miranda said quietly.

“Miranda, what if I applied to be a foster parent? Do you think Mack could come live with us?” Kelly said first the first time out loud. Mack’s eyes got wide, but she didn’t say anything. The minute Miranda had told her about having to leave Martin House that morning, she wondered about going to live with Kelly, Matt, and Shay. She didn’t get her hopes up though because that would be a dream come true.

Miranda smiled, “I was hoping you’d say that, I’ve already put paperwork in, you are pre-approved,” Miranda said. Mack pumped her fist, ‘yes’ she said quietly. Miranda looked at Mack, “this is not a guarantee, there are still a lot of hoops to jump through, but Kelly if you are up for it, I can not recommend you enough,” Miranda said smiling.

Kelly looked at Matt and Shay before looking back at Miranda, “I’m definitely up for it, but what about my living situation? Is having Matt and Shay there going to be a problem?” Kelly asked nervously.

“No, especially because of your work. You’ll be the person on record, but because you all are living together, you’ll need to each pass a background check. I can get an emergency license, but you’ll all need to do the training” Miranda said bringing out her notebook to show the paperwork.

“What about our apartment?” Matt asked, “It only has three bedrooms.” He said quietly.

“For final approval Mack will need a bedroom, but in the interim, your place will work,” Miranda said quietly.

“I can really live with you?” Mack said with tears in her eyes looking at Kelly, who was seated next to her on Boden’s couch.

“Yes, looks like you’re stuck with me,” Kelly said quietly pulling her into a side hug with his good arm. “I told you, I have your back,” Kelly said quietly.

*****************

It took another week for all the paperwork to go through, for the loft to be approved and for a judge to sign off on Kelly being Mack’s foster parent. Shay, Matt, and Kelly decided that they’d find a place with 4 bedrooms, but in the interim, Matt would stay with stay with Kelly in his room, which happened 5 out 7 nights a week anyway, but it was a bit of a bigger deal as he moved all of his _stuff_ into Kelly’s room now as well.

The first night that Mack came to stay with them, it was a bit anticlimactic as she’d stayed at their apartment multiple times before, although now she had own bedroom. Matt made a homecooked meal, and they just stayed in, watching a Blackhawks game on TV, while Shay, Emily, and Mack played a tournament of Connect 4. Shay and Emily left later in the night to meet up with their friends at a bar.  During a commercial, Mack grabbed the remote and muted it so that she could talk to them.

“I just wanted to say thank you; you have no idea how much this means to me,” Mack said quietly.

Kelly leaned over and squeezed her knee and looked into her face, “Mack you don’t need to thank me. Orlofsky saw something that we didn’t; I’m so thankful you’ve come into our lives. There will be bumps, I’m sure at one point it will hit me I am responsible for a teenager who was described to me as me at this age, which is horrifying thought by the way, but we’re a team, we’ll figure it out together.” Kelly said quietly laughing.

“I promise, I’ll be good,” Mack said quietly in response.

Kelly smiled to himself, because he knew her now, he knew that she would get herself into some scrape or another before too long. Nothing illegal, nothing that would get her in _a lot_ of trouble, just enough to piss a few people off and scare him half to death.

“I don’t expect you to be perfect; you are young, you’re going to make mistakes, don’t feel like you have to be perfect, I’m not…we’re not going to kick you out if you fuck up once or twice.” Kelly said seriously.

Mack smiled before hugging him tightly and then going to _her room_ to chat with some friends from her soccer team. She’d sent them pictures of her new digs earlier in the night, and now they were all asking when they could come over and see her new place.

Matt and Kelly headed to bed not much later, getting ready for bed quietly before climbing into their bed, Matt curling into Kelly’s arms, “You are an amazing man, I love you,” Matt said quietly.

Kelly kissed the top of Matt’s head and pulled him closer to his body, “remind me that when she’s driving us nuts,” Kelly said quietly laughing before they fell asleep.


	10. Chapter 10

# Chapter 10

 

3 months after Mack moves in:

“Hudson! Get a move on if you want a ride to school!” Kelly shouted from the kitchen of their new house. After a month of living in the loft, Kelly, Shay and Matt realized they needed more space. While Kelly and Matt were fine sharing a room and would like to continue to share one, the lack of overall space for the four of them was becoming noticeable especially once Mack felt comfortable bringing her friends around. They found a 4-bedroom, 3 bath condominium close to the Firehouse, with Mack’s school on the way, which meant that they often gave her a ride on the way to shift. They’d had to adjust their shifts a bit so that one of them was home for Mack as she was not allowed to be home alone overnight as often as they were on shift. Overall the transition was going relatively smoothly. There had been one or two extremely awkward moments when Shay and Emily forgot about Mack being at the house after they’d gone out one night and Matt and Kelly were at Molly’s for a bit and another time when the guys forgot.

_3 weeks after Mack moved in (old apartment)_

_Mack was sitting on the couch in the living room working on her history paper and periodically texting with her friends while listening to music. Shay and Emily were in Shay’s room watching a movie and Kelly and Matt were out with some friends on a double date, which had prompted A LOT of ribbing earlier in the night before they left all dressed up._

_Suddenly, the front door slammed open and Kelly and Matt stubbled in ripping each other’s clothes off as Kelly walked backward into the kitchen stopping at the island. “Matt, oh Matt” Kelly said groaning as Matt kissed at the corner of his neck while undoing his pants and reaching his hand into Kelly’s pants._

_“You like that?” Matt growled biting a bit at Kelly’s skin._

_“You know I do, get your pants off so I can fuck you,” Kelly replied._

_Both were utterly oblivious to Mack on the couch in the living room 10 feet away, frozen and not sure what to do. To get to her bedroom, she needed to walk past the kitchen and go up the stairs, and she didn’t dare move. Before she knew it, Kelly had pulled Matt’s pants down and was now behind him with Matt leaning over the kitchen counter. Mack squeezed her eyes shut and slammed her history text book shut and onto the coffee table as loud as possible hoping they’d hear her. She then curled up into a ball on the couch and pulled the throw over her head mortified._

_“Oh shit!” both Kelly and Matt said at the same time, Mack heard the rustle of clothes, so she assumed they were getting dressed._

_“Go up to our room, I’ll be there in a second,” Mack heard Kelly say before she heard footsteps walked toward her._

_“Kelly, I swear to god, do not say anything. I am going to pretend this never happened, can you please do the same,” Mack said tensely while still hiding under the blanket. She heard Kelly chuckle._

_“Gladly, I’m sorry I guess we’re still adjusting,” Kelly said lamely._

_“Apparently,” Mack said quietly. She wasn’t insulted by this admission. They all knew that having a 16-year-old move in would take some time to get used too. For example, Mack had to remind them that she needed actual food in the house not just beer and chips as she DIDN’T eat at the firehouse on their shift days. That while she didn’t mind walking the 3 miles home from school sometimes, it would be nice if one of them picked her up from school when they said they were going too. Miranda continued as her case manager, so she was pretty forgiving of the “mistakes” Kelly, Matt and Shay made as she knew they meant well and were just not used to having a 16-year-old to attend to._

_“I’ll see you in the morning,” Kelly said chagrined before headed up the stairs. He hoped Matt knew that whatever plans they’d had before this was not going to happen. Kelly felt SOOO guilty. Between his injury limiting their ability to be together and spending time on Mack, it had been awhile since he and Matt were together. After their date with their friends, they’d felt in the mood, not so much now._

_Mack hid under the blanket until she heard their bedroom door close._

_****End flashback*******_

“Coming, Jeeze,” Mack said walling into the kitchen while pulling her hair up into a ponytail.

“Let’s get a move on,” Kelly curtly said as he walked toward the back door. Matt and Shay had already left. Kelly was still not on full duty much to _everyone’s_ dismay as he was getting more and more hard to live with the longer it took for his leg to be fully healed. He still had at least two-three more weeks before his doctor would even entertain giving him a fitness-for-duty exam and it was driving him crazy!

Mack knew he was mad about being sidelined and tried her hardest not to take his rudeness personally, but sometimes it was hard. They got in Kelly’s car quickly and headed toward her school.   


As Kelly pulled up to her school, Mack remembered the detention slip he needed to sign, “Oh can you sign this?” Mack said handing him a piece of paper and a pen from her backpack.

 

“What is it?” Kelly asked looking at the piece of crinkled piece of paper she’d just handed him.

 

“It’s a detention slip, you have to sign it,” Mack said cringing. She’d meant to talk to him the night before, but Cara, the girl she was crushing hard on had texted her, and she’d lost track of time.

 

“Why the fuck did you get detention?” He harshly asked while glaring at her.

 

Mack jumped at his harsh tone. In all the time they’d known each other, and the three months she’d lived with them, Kelly had never raised his voice to her once. Mack grabbed the piece of paper back from him, “Never mind” she said going to get out of the car.

 

Kelly, realizing his mistake, put his hand on her arm, “Mack, wait, stop, I’m sorry. What happened?” he said much calmer.

 

“I was late for biology” Mack started quietly “for the third time.” Mack finished.

 

“Three times?” Kelly asked surprised.

 

“Well I have B Lunch, and Cara has C lunch,” Mack said blushing.

 

Kelly rolled his eyes but smiled a little, another little reminder of why people compared her to him in high school and grabbed the paper Mack was still holding, putting it on his steering wheel and signing the document. “Not ok Mack, Not ok. Come right to the Firehouse after detention” Kelly said handing the paper back to her.

 

“Kelly, Cara and I were….” Mack started to say.

 

“You and Cara were what? I know you like this girl and all but being late to class is not okay!” Kelly said. “Firehouse right after school, “Kelly said before Mack finished getting out of the car while grumbling about Kelly being a buzzkill. Kelly rolled his eyes and pulled out into traffic heading to the firehouse for another dull day of paperwork and monotonous tasks that were driving him crazy. He knew he was a pain in the ass to live with lately (Matt had growled that at him last night before going to bed), but he couldn’t help it, being sidelined from Squad was slowly driving him crazy.

 

Pulling up behind Matt’s truck, Kelly heaved a huge sigh. He’d been injured on the job before, but never so severely that he’d been sidelined for four months now! The relief lieutenant on Squad, a guy, named Erikson was ok, but he wasn’t as trained as the other guys being under Severide, which had made for some awkward calls when Capp, Tony, and Cruz wanted to use a technique Erikson didn’t know. Severide walked into the Firehouse quietly heading for the bullpen where he’d been assigned a desk next to Connie.

 

Boden was standing by the door to his office, apparently waiting for Kelly, “Severide, a word” Boden said seriously ushering his lieutenant into his office. Kelly inwardly groaned, ‘what was the problem now!’ he thought to himself.

 

Upon entering Boden’s office, Kelly instantly tensed upon seeing Grissom sitting on the couch. He knew Grissom and Boden had buried the hatchet after the whole Gorsch debacle, but Kelly and he had not. He had not seen the commissioner since before Benny passed away. However, Kelly wasn’t stupid enough to snub a higher-ranking office.

 

“Commissioner,” Kelly said formally holding his hand out to shake Grissom’s when he stood to greet Kelly.

 

“Lieutenant Severide, how is rehab going?” Grissom said with a smile on his face.

 

“Good, slower than I’d prefer, but I’m progressing. Should be duty-fit in about a month,” Kelly answered formally.

 

“Good, that’s good to hear, I bet your guys miss you on the rig,” Grissom said conversationally as they all sat down again. Kelly didn’t respond just nodded and gave both Boden and Grissom a look as if to say, ‘what am I doing in here?’

“I’m here to let you know, I’m promoting you to Captain,” Grissom said bluntly, choosing to get right to the point.

 

Kelly’s eyes shot wide open as he looked at Boden in shock, Boden’s broad smile and a nod let him know that this was, in fact, true and not a sick joke.

 

“Look, Kelly, I know you, and I didn’t see eye to eye last year several times, and there was the issue when Gorsch was here at 51. Through all of that, through losing Benny, the way you’ve conducted yourself the last year or so has been beyond impressive. Your squad is by far-and-away the most experienced squad in the CFD. You’ve come into the firehouse every shift and done whatever is asked of you. The training you led with Clearwater and his men at Rescue 5, he couldn’t speak positively enough about you.” Grissom finished up and let Kelly have a moment to digest all that he just said.

 

“I don’t know what to say,” Kelly said honestly. When he’d seen Boden standing at the door and then Grissom and given the way his morning had gone with Mack, he was not expecting good news.

 

“Along with the promotion, I’ve recommended you for the Carter Harrison Award. The ceremony is next week,” Grissom said standing up. “Congratulations Lieutenant Severide, you’ve earned it.” Grissom finished before looking at Boden, “Chief,” he said by way of leaving.

 

“Commissioner,” Boden replied nodding his head. Kelly was sitting in Boden’s chair by his desk in shock.

Boden chose not to say anything, let Kelly absorb the news he’d just gotten. Matt came to the door of the office, knocking on the doorframe.

 

“Just saw Grissom leaving, everything ok?” He asked looking a little worried, especially given the look on Kelly’s face. Kelly just continued to sit silently in shock. To hear he was getting promoted to captain was shocking, but to then learn he’d be getting the same award his father had earned, it was all a little much for him to digest.

 

“I’ll give you two a minute,” Boden said smiling. He knew Kelly was okay that he was just in shock.

 

Matt gave Boden a confused looked and came to sit down in front of Kelly, “Hey you ok?” Matt asked worriedly.

 

“Grissom is promoting me to captain,” Kelly said in amazement after a minute.

 

“What?!” Matt exclaimed pulling Kelly into a hug, “that’s amazing! Why don’t you look happy?” Matt asked with arm around Kelly’s shoulder squeezing.

 

“I think I’m in shock,” Kelly said smiling a little and looking up into Matt’s arms, “He’s also recommended me for the Carter Harrison Award,” Kelly added smiling more as he became less shocked.

 

“Babe, I’m so proud of you, this is so overdue,” Matt said kissing Kelly’s forehead. They typically kept PDA at the firehouse to a minimum, but this was a special occasion.

 ** _Truck 81, squad 3, Ambulance 61_** …. Matt and Kelly stood up “Go, stay safe,” Kelly said she resigned to his position of riding a desk.

 

“I’m proud of you,” Matt said one more time before running off to jump on Truck 81.

 

The rest of the morning went relatively smoothly, the whole house congratulating Kelly on his promotion and award, Hermann declaring that they’d celebrate at Molly’s the following night. Kelly was able to catch Matt and Shay up on the detention debacle with Mack and let them know he expected her here by 4. They both agreed he’d rallied to handle it well and they all lamented that they were starting to feel like their parents, which got a chuckle from Hermann.

 

******

4:30 – Mack is still not at the Firehouse

 

“You heard from Mack?” Kelly asked leaning against Matt’s office door.

 

“No, what time did you expect her to get here?” He answered looking at his phone to see if he missed any calls or texts.

 

“The slip I signed said she had detention from 3:00-3:30. She should have been here 30 minutes ago.” Kelly said trying not to worry.

 

“You try calling?” Matt asked even though he knew Kelly probably had.

 

“Yes, straight to voicemail. Her phone is off, I checked on that Parent app you had me install last week.” Kelly said sarcastically. When Mack had put on Kelly’s cell plan, Matt had hounded Kelly to install the parent monitoring software that his cell company offered for a month before Kelly finally relented, mostly jst to get Matt to stop talking about it. He wasn’t going to admit to Matt; he found it quite helpful to his anxiety as a new parent to know where Mack was and some of what she was up too.

 

 “Call the school?” Matt said a little out of his element. He was trying not to freak out and assume the worst scenario for himself and Kelly. He was hoping that Mack was finally letting lose a little and ignoring Kelly’s demand to come right to the firehouse after school instead.

 

“No, I didn’t want to be that person,” Kelly said entirely out of his element.

 

“Well it’s only been 30 minutes, maybe we should wait until 5 and then call,” Matt said.

 

They waited another 30 minutes before calling the school and getting the secretary just as she was leaving, who informed Kelly she’d seen Mack walk out the front door after signing out of detention saying she had a doctor’s appointment. Kelly was somewhat relieved to know that Mack must have blown him off and went to hang out of with Cara instead of doing detention and coming to the firehouse but he was also furious with her. Being that he was still riding a desk, his shift was only day-time, he was off at 6. So, after saying good-bye to Matt and Shay and promising that he would not completely blow his top, Kelly drove home, hoping that Mack was not dead in a ditch somewhere. She was not at the house when he got home so he went about making dinner for them and trying not to flip out. At 7:30, after talking to Matt and really starting to worry, Mack came into the house smiling and typing on her cellphone. She did not notice Kelly sitting at the kitchen table looking like he was going to murder someone.

 

“How was your doctor’s appointment?” Kelly asked by way of letting her know he was there. Mack froze knowing she was dompletely busted. “Come have a seat,” Kelly said evenly while holding out his hand, “I’ll take your phone for now.” He said giving no room to argue.

 

Mack huffed and glared at Kelly, “Seriously?” she asked thinking he was kidding around, trying to call his bluff.

 

“Mack, I was about to call Erin and Jay, you were supposed to be at the firehouse 4 hours ago. Your phone was off, and the secretary said you signed yourself out of detention. Yes, seriously, give me the phone.” Kelly said with a firm voice, “and sit your ass down.” He added. Mack handed over her phone and flopped into the chair across from Kelly.

 

He looked at her for a moment trying to calm himself down. He could see her walls going up, the ones that had been sturdy and strong when they met almost a year ago. Sighing deeply Kelly looked at Mack, “I was worried about you. I didn’t know where you were, your phone was off. If something happened to you…I don’t know what I’d do Mack.” Kelly started figuring he’d let her know how much he cared about her safety first before getting angry.

 

“I went to Cara’s. We were hanging out.” Mack said like it was no big deal.

 

“And what did I say about that this morning?” Kelly asked.

 

Mack had the decency to look guilty, “that I should come right to the firehouse.” She replied.

 

“Yeah,” Kelly started before pausing for a minute. “Look, I am not stupid enough to have thought the transition from your mentor to your parent would be without problems, this being one them. I am responsible for you and your wellbeing. I am also responsible for teaching you and helping you grow up into the badass women firefighter I know you will become.” Kelly said smiling, which got a smile from Mack as well, “But that means there are rules that I, we,” Kelly said changing to include Shay and Matt into the equation, “expect you to follow. Never mind, that I need you to follow. Do I have to remind you that my being your foster parent is temporary? This is not the type of thing that would look good when we go for review to be your permanent placement next month.” Kelly said trying not to be too harsh.

 

Mack looked down feeling bad about blowing Kelly off, “I’m sorry, it’s just she asked me to go to hang out and I just….really like her,” Mack said quietly.

 

Kelly smirked, “Believe me I know what it’s like, I remember what it was like, I also know what the consequences of blowing stuff of are. I do not want you to have to deal with that part of teenage life ok?” Kelly said.

 

“Yeah, ok,” Mack said quietly.

 

“So, no phone for the rest of the night, you can have it back tomorrow. And to the firehouse directly after school for the rest of the week,” Kelly said. “Deal?” he asked looking at her thoughtfully.

 

Mack sighed and looked back at Kelly, “Deal” she said standing up to go get a glass of water.

 

“Now, let’s eat, I’m fucking hungry, and you are going to tell me about this girl,” Kelly said smirking to which Mack groaned but with a smile on her face and her heart full; knowing that no matter how annoying having “a parent” might be Mack wouldn’t have it any other way.


	11. Chapter 11

# Chapter 11

 

“What the hell Severide!” Mack exclaimed the next afternoon jumping up on his desk. Kelly, earbuds in and intently concentrating on the online training he was working on did not see her come up until it was too late and jumped out of his chair in surprise. Matt and Shay were off for the next 48, having just completed a 24-hour shift so he was bored given that he didn’t know a lot of the guys on shift at the moment beyond casual acquaintance.

 

“Jesus Hudson warn a guy next time,” Kelly said good-naturedly. Kelly and she had taken to using their last names with each other at the firehouse, as that is how everyone else addressed them. Mack and Kelly were for their house, where Shay was Leslie and Casey was Matt. They were very much a family, but in order to establish boundaries, Kelly and Mack had unconsciously started referring to each other by the last name at the firehouse.

 

Mack rolled her eyes, “You should talk, you didn’t tell me about getting promoted to Captain _and_ the Carter Harrison Award!” Mack said. She’d just come from an Explorers meeting at headquarters where her instructor let them all know they’d be attending the promotion ceremony the following week as observers.

 

“Excuse me while I was busy worrying you were in a ditch somewhere, me becoming captain wasn’t as important as making sure you weren’t dead,” Kelly said sarcastically.

 

Mack blushed and looked guilty, “Sorry you had to deal with that last night. Congratulations!” Mack said hugging Kelly tightly. Kelly rolled his eyes at her and received the hug. “thank you, now go check in with Simons, he said something about oiling the jaws.” Kelly said. Oiling the Jaws of Life was a messy and dirty job that most of them pawned off as scut work as much as possible. Mack knew that she’d gotten off easy for the detention issue the day before, so she wisely kept her mouth shut.

 

The afternoon was quiet, Squad got called out for extrication from a once car collision, but otherwise, the house was quiet, which meant Kelly got a lot of his classwork completed and Mack was able to finish her homework.

 

“Mack, time to go,” Kelly said standing at the door of the common room at 6 pm.

 

“Thanks for lending her to us for the afternoon Severide,” Simon’s the highest-ranking firefighter on Squad for that shift said.

 

“No problem, she’s happy to do anything isn’t that right?” Kelly said looking at Mack and daring her to contradict him.

 

“Yup,” she said looking down.

 

“Congrats on Captain and the Harrison,” another guy from truck said as they walked out the door.

“Thanks,” Kelly said before heading out of the firehouse with Mack.

 

The gathering at Molly’s that night was smaller than Kelly thought it would be, which was a great relief, he did NOT like people making a big deal over him. It was bad enough that the ceremony the following week would be such a bru ha ha.

 

********

The following week Promotion ceremony.

 

Kelly sat with Matt and Shay in his dress uniform as all the firefighters received their promotions. He knew that he’d be toward the end, as being promoted to captain while also winning the award would be saved for last.

 

Commissioner Grissom stood at the podium, with Boden standing next to him.

 

“Would Captain Kelly Severide please step forward,” Grissom said looking at the guy he thought of as a son. Kelly heaved a sigh before standing and going up to the podium, grinning at hearing himself referred to as captain. He’d tried to not make a big deal of the promotion, especially as he was still not on full-duty, but deep down he couldn’t help but think of Benny, and how excited he’d be to see his son made a Captain for Squad.

 

“I have known Captain Severide since his academy days, I have had the pleasure (and pain)” Grissom said smirking as those who knew Kelly in the audience laughed, “of watching him become the elite firefighter he is today. He has turned Squad 3 into the best of the CFD. While injured, Captain Severide has taken it upon himself to visit other Squads within the CFD to train them as well. He was not ordered to do this, but when asked if he’d be willing, not only did he accept, my lieutenants from the other squads report he created some of the best training they’ve ever attended. While I could continue on many of Captain Severide’s achievements within the CFD, there is no one who can speak better about this than one of our own CFD Explorers, Mackenzie Hudson” Grissom said looking to the Explorer group that was seated in the corner. Mack stood, in her blue suit that Shay had brought her shopping for the weekend before and walked over to the podium. Kelly tried to hide the look of surprise as he “daughter” came to speak about him.

 

“Retired CFD Chaplain Orlofsky met me when I was a pissed off 14-year-old who’d been told that some test she didn’t pay attention to in class said she’d be a good firefighter,” Mack started getting a chuckle from the crowd, “My group home director Miranda knew Orlofsky through his charity work and  she connected us. She figured that maybe he’d give me some direction, he would be the one who would the one to inspire me to greatness, she figured wrong.” Mack said taking a minute to breathe while getting another laugh from the crowd, “Within one meeting with me, Chaplain declared that he had just the person for me to shadow. A lieutenant on Squad 3 whom I reminded him of. I didn’t want to tell him that having me shadow someone who was just like me, was probably not the greatest idea.” Mack said turning to smile at Kelly. “But then I met Severide, as everyone called him. He was calm and collected and commanded his squad in a way I couldn’t even imagine doing. That first shift I shadowed he climbed into a car teetering on the edge of The Dan Ryan like he was climbing the jungle gym at school. He rescued a small child and his mother that day and then spent time talking to a grumpy teenage girl like the two were equally as important.” Mack said getting a little bit teary eyed. “Congratulations Captain, you’ve very much earned it,” Mack said finishing her speech. Grissom handed her his new captain shield and she turned to pin it onto his jacket before hugging him tightly.

 

“You sneak,” Kelly said laughing while hugging her, “thank you for that, I love you,” He said quietly. Mack just hugged him tighter. This was the first time he’d said that to her. He always let her know that he cared about her and that he’d look out for her no matter what, but to hear him say those three words were beyond special.

 

Boden stepped to the podium next, “would Captain Matthew Casey please come up.” Boden said smiling. He had asked Matt privately if he’d like to be part of the ceremony. He knew that while he and Kelly were open in the house and around their fire-family, they tended to try to keep their relationship on the down-low when at full CFD functions. When offered the chance to present Kelly’s award to him, he couldn’t say no, no matter what people might say. It was too important, and he was too proud of Kelly not to show him.

 

“The Carter Harrison Award for Valor is presented to firefighters who go beyond the call of duty. On January 19th, Captain Kelly Severide performed a heroic search and rescue of an occupant inside a building fire. With no water yet flowing into the building due to the cold, he entered the first floor of the building under heavy smoke and fire, with zero visibility. Upon completing a search of the third floor, Captain Severide found a small child hiding in a closet. While descending, holding the child in his arms, the staircase collapsed. Captain Severide maneuvered his body so as to protect his victim as much as possible. Thanks to his heroics, the child escaped some bumps and bruise and a broken clavicle. If not for his personal courage above and beyond the call of duty in the face of a great risk of personal injury, the child would not be with us today. It is my honor and privilege to present Captain Kelly Severide with the 2018 Carter Harrison Award.” Matt said smiling before turning to pin the award on Kelly’s dress coat below his other awards and opposite of his shield.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trying as hard as possible to push through the writer's block on this one. Any ideas/suggestions/thoughts/comments welcome.


	12. Chapter 12

# Chapter 12

 “Hey, any chance you could make sure you guys aren’t on Shift, April 7th?” Mack asked during dinner with Matt and Kelly one night in March.

“That’s enough time, I’ll talk to Boden in the morning, What’s April 7th?” Kelly asked as he ate his salad.

“The spring concert, I have a solo,” Mack said quietly. She’d debated even asking them to take the day off, they’d already done so much for her but in the end, her choir director encouraged her and realized that they’d probably be mad if she didn’t tell them.

“Oh wow, that’s great,” Kelly said smiling, “Congratulation.”

“Thanks, it’s the first time a non-upper-classman has been given a solo at the spring concert,” She said quietly.

“Well you deserve it, you have a beautiful voice,” Matt said smiling.

Mack smiled shyly before taking a bite of her dinner and mumbling thanks. Even 5 months after moving in and having the foster license secured, Mack still sometimes had a hard time believing that Shay, Kelly, and Matt were in it for the long haul. She knew objectively that this is what being in the system did to you and tried as hard as she could not let the doubts seep in, but sometimes they had a mind of their own.

Later, as Matt read a book and Kelly laid on the couch with his head in Matt’s lap doing his ever-present crossword puzzle, Mack came back downstairs biting her lip and looking very nervous. She stood in the kitchen pretending to get a drink of water and a snack before Kelly sighed and sat up.

“Mack, what’s up?” he asked looking concerned.

Mack heaved a sigh and came over holding the pamphlet her soccer coach gave her earlier that day after gym class. “There’s a summer soccer academy the Red Stars host every summer, it’s invitation only. Coach recommended me for this summer.” Mack said handing Kelly the pamphlet that described the amazing opportunity, if not for the $1500 it cost.

“Wow, this is awesome! Why were nervous to talk to me about this?” Kelly asked looking at his foster daughter. “you know you can talk to me about anything” Kelly said to which Mack gave him a glare, “ok, well some things Shay is better with, but everything else. A couple of weeks ago, Kelly was ribbing Mack about Cara, her girlfriend when things had gotten very awkward quickly when it came to what Mack was _doing_ with Cara.

“It’s really expensive. I was recommended for it last year as well, but Miranda said there was no way I would be able to go, DCFS wouldn’t pay for it.” Mack said quietly. “I was thinking maybe I could get a job and then pay you back?” Mack said quietly.

Kelly sat quietly for a moment before looking back at Mack, “this is a pretty big deal huh?” he asked.

“The biggest, I didn’t think it would happen again because I had to turn the offer down last year,” Mack responded.

Kelly nodded, “ok, let me think about it, talk with Matt and Shay and I’ll let you know ok?”

Mack hugged him tightly, “thanks.” She said quietly before going back to her room to finish her homework and text Cara that Kelly hadn’t said _NO_.

Downstairs:

“What do you think?” Matt asked quietly.

“I mean it seems like a pretty big deal. I spoke to her coach the other day about coordinating Explorers with her season next fall. She was really positive about her skill.” Kelly said quietly.

Kelly looked up at Matt and pouted, “I am having a parenting conundrum. $1500? I have that kind of cash, I just don’t know if I am supposed to give it all to her or make her work for some it?” Kelly said.

Matt chuckled and pulled Kelly in for a hug, “I think this is a question for Hermann and Tony,” Matt said quietly. Whenever they had questions about parenting, they asked Hermann and Tony. Tony was a quiet one in the house, often didn’t say much but he’d been married for 20 years, had 3 well-behaved kids and seemed to know what he was doing. And Hermann, he was Hermann, he may act like a goof but to be around Cindy and the kids, they obviously were doing something right.

Kelly laughed, “exactly,” he said before climbing onto Matt’s lap and leaning in for a kiss.

*************

“I swear to god Kelly, cut it out!” Matt growled a couple of days later as they walked back into their condo.

“I’m not going to cut it out! You jumped into the elevator shaft before we could secure it!” Kelly exclaimed slamming the door behind him as they took off their coats and toed off their shoes.

“I was reacting. The guy was going to be crushed!” Matt exclaimed as he walked into the kitchen and grabbed some water.

“Yeah, like you had a death wish! How about less reacting and more thinking!” Kelly tensely.

“Kelly,” Matt started to say, in the tone that Kelly knew he was going to try to pull rank on him.

“Matt, do not even say it, remember? I’m the same fucking rank as you now. I know it’s hard for you to believe but there are some things that I know more about than you!” Kelly screamed about to add more to his sentence, pausing to take a deep breath. Matt stood with arms crossed seething as Kelly screamed at him. He tried not to roll his eyes, really, he tried but Kelly was completely overreacting to the whole thing. Kelly, staring at him in anger saw the him roll his eyes, which just made him angrier.

“You are real asshole sometimes, you know that?” Kelly stated before taking the stairs two by two and slamming their bedroom door closed. He was beyond frustrated. They’d been called to an office building with a trapped elevator service member. Before Kelly could even assess the scene, Matt had thrown off his turnout gear and slid right under the elevator that was collapsing on the service worker. Now, not only was Kelly trying to find a way to save the elevator guy, he had to save his boyfriend too. He’d managed to remain calm on the scene and both trapped people were extricated. But when Kelly tried to talk to Matt later on at the house, he’d been blown off like it wasn’t a big deal.

Matt huffed in frustration and got his shoes and coat back on, choosing to leave the condo and head right over to his current contractor job instead of taking a shower and nap as he planned.

Kelly and Matt avoided each other all day, Matt staying on his job site and Kelly taking a nap and then going to watch Mack’s spring ball game. They came in just as Matt and Shay were starting dinner. Kelly and Matt barely acknowledged each other, which made dinner prep and dinner super awkward. To cut the tension, Shay looked over to Matt, “heard you had quite the call yesterday afternoon.”

 

Mack LOVED firehouse stories, she loved listening to Kelly, Matt and Shay talk technique and hear old stories about firefighters gone past. She unfortunately did not pick up the tension between the two before it was too late.

“Yeah, a guy got stuck in an elevator shaft and the elevator wouldn’t stay put,” Matt said about to tell Mack the strategy of using cribbing and the jaws when Kelly scoffed.

“You mean, a victim _and you_ got stuck in an elevator shaft,” Kelly said glaring at Matt.

Before Mack knew what was happening, Kelly and Matt were yelling at each other with such anger, Mack sat frozen at the table until Shay came up and dragged her to the door to put their shoes and coats on. Shay gave Mack the keys to her car and told her to wait for her in the car. She was taking them to Emily’s apartment for the night.

“Hey!” Shay yelled getting both of the guys’ attention, “Now that you both have scared Mack to death, I am taking her to Emily’s tonight. Work out your shit. This isn’t fair to her.” Shay said with venom in her voice before slamming the door shut and jumping into her car.

They were driving for a couple of minutes before Mack spoke up, “are they going to break up?” she asked scared.

Shay thought for a minute, “No, they love each other. That’s part of the problem. They are both hotshot firefighters with egos the size of the Grand Canyon and the capacity to express their emotions the size of a speck of rice.”  Shay said. “I shouldn’t have brought it up. I’m sorry. I thought they were over it. Matt took a huge risk yesterday, according to Kelly a stupid one. This is part of them working out both being Captains. We’ll hang out with Em tonight, I’ll bring you to school in the morning.” Shay said as she drove to her girlfriend's apartment.

“I don’t have any of my stuff,” Mack said quietly.

“You can borrow something to sleep in from Emily. We’ll leave early in the morning to get your bag.” Shay said quietly patting Mack on her knee to reassure the teen that everything would be ok.

**********

At the condo:

Once Shay slammed out of the house all the fight dropped out of both.

“Fuck,” Kelly said dropping into a chair at the table and putting his head in his eyes.

Matt sat across from Kelly at the table, shell-shocked. How had a disagreement about how a call had gotten them to this?

“Do you know what would have happened if you’d been crushed?” Kelly finally said without picking his head up from his hands. He couldn’t look at Matt while talking, “I love you, I would be destroyed if something happened to you.” Kelly said. Just as Matt was about to point out that their jobs were inherently dangerous, Kelly continued. “I know that every day we’re on shift there is a chance something tragic could happen. I’ve accepted that. But to lose you in such a stupid irresponsible way?” Kelly said in disbelief bringing his eyes up to look up at Matt, who was staring at him. “What the fuck were you thinking?” Kelly asked again calmer.

Matt sat quietly for a moment, “I don’t know. Like I said yesterday, I wasn’t thinking, I just reacted.” Matt said quietly before continuing, “do you really feel like I think I’m better than you?” he asked quietly.

“Yes, and when I pointed it out you rolled your eyes,” Kelly replied clearly hurt.

“I don’t actually think I’m a better firefighter than you,” Matt started quietly, “I guess I act like though, don’t I?” Matt asked his boyfriend. It was hard to realize he’d been an ass yesterday and that he’d been subtly sending this message Kelly for a while.

“You do. I don’t think you even realize it. Matt, you are a great fire Captain, there is no one I’d rather have on a call than you and your team, but you are not trained in the same way that I am. You know stuff I don’t about fires, and I know stuff you don’t about rescue techniques. We need to be a team.” Kelly said quietly reaching out to hold Matt’s hand. “I’m sorry I called you an asshole.” He added smiling a little to get Matt to smile a little as well.

“Thank you,” Matt said squeezing Kelly’s hand before looking at the dark-haired guy across from his,

“I should text Shay, check on Mack,” Kelly said pulling out his phone.

  

Kelly sighed and looked at Matt, “Shay is pissed. Apparently, we scared Mack,” Kelly said feeling terrible. “Fuck!” he said frustrated and disappointed in himself.  Matt was feeling equally as guilty, howev,er he kept that to himself as he could see Kelly was headed down a complete spiral if Matt didn’t keep it together. They couldn’t _both_ have breakdowns at once.

“Hey, let’s go up and get some sleep. We can’t do anything about it right now. We’ll talk to her tomorrow.” Matt said pulling Kelly up the stairs to bed.

*****

The next morning:

Shay walked into the house to grab Mack’s bag, meeting Kelly and Matt in the kitchen.

“Let me just bring her to school, I’ll be right back,” Shay said not giving either of them a chance to speak before grabbing Mack’s backpack, a bottle of water from the fridge and a banana from the counter.

20 minutes later Shay walked back into the house and found Kelly and Matt in the living room trying to distract themselves with a crossword.

“What the fuck were you guys thinking?” Shay asked flopping down on her favorite couch.

Both men looked extremely guilty, “We weren’t” Kelly said quietly.

“She’s fine, she was worried about you two, I think she has this thought in her mind that if for some reason either Matt and I were not in the picture anymore you’d change your mind about fostering her.” Shay said quietly. She’d sat with Mack the night before chatting for a while, helping the teenager understand that just because a couple has a fight, doesn’t mean they break up or something bad happens.

“You two good now?” Shay asked with a little of her own worry about her two very good friends.

Matt nodded, “Yeah, we are. This one is on me. I did something really stupid and Kelly had a right to be mad,” Matt said quietly.

The rest of the day was spent quietly, each doing their own things and meeting up for lunch. Mack got home from school around 4. Kelly was waiting for her. They went for a walk by the river to talk. Kelly apologized profusely and got Mack to talk a little bit about her fears when it came to Kelly and being sent back to DCFS. They had a great evening just the two of them. When they got home the 4 family members camped out in the living room and watched a movie together, choosing to put all the pillows on the floor to cuddle together as a “Chamly” (chosen family) as Mack had dubbed it a few weeks before

After discussing the soccer camp issue with both Tony and Hermann, Kelly agreed to pay 75% of the cost. Mack would be expected to raise $500 dollars to go toward camp. Matt offered for her to tag along on jobs as “gofer” (go for this, go for that), and Hermann reported that he’d be willing to having Mack work at busing table at Molly’s during the day.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trying to push through the writer's block. This is a short chapter. Hopefully, people enjoy it though/

#  Chapter 13

“Morning Tony, Capp, Cruz” Kelly said coming up to the squad table after putting his stuff in his locker and checking with Boden.

“Severide,” they all said as Kelly said down.

“Hey Tony, got a minute?” Severide asked pulling the pamphlet Mack had given him about the soccer academy out.

“What’s up Sev?” Tony asked

“Mack got invited to the Red Stars Academy this summer. It’s supposed to be a huge deal,” Kelly started.

“Yeah, it’s huge, my niece went last year. There was a ton of scouts from D1 schools, that’s how she got that full ride to Illinois,” Capp added to the conversation.

“That’s great, didn’t realize she was that good,” Tony said wondering what Severide needed.  

“See the thing is, the academy is $1500. I have the cash but is this like a learning opportunity or something I’m supposed to be giving her. Should I make her pay for it?” Kelly asked totally confused about the parenting thing.

Tony laughed and shook his head, “It is whatever you think is right Severide. If you want to pay for the whole thing, pay for it. If you want her to be responsible for some of it, figure out how much you want her to pay for.  Did you read that book Angela gave you?” Tony asked referring to the parenting book his wife Angela, a family therapist had sent in for Kelly when Tony had told her about his constant questions.

“Yeah, some of it,” Kelly said quietly.

“If it were me with Mack, I wouldn’t make her pay the whole thing, I’d probably decide on a 75/25 split. She’s had a tough life, she’s earned a little bit of ease now that she has you. Don’t let her off the hook completely, but if you want to give her stuff most other teens have always had, I don’t think it’s a big deal,” Tony said quietly. “Don’t forget, Angela said she’d answer any of your questions any time. She said it’d be better than asking me,” Tony said laughing.

“Yeah, I know, I don’t think I need a therapist yet thought,” Kelly said standing up to go check in with Matt and Shay about the soccer academy decision. After discussing the soccer camp issue with both Tony and Hermann during shift, Kelly agreed to pay 75% of the cost as Tony had suggested. Mack would be expected to raise $500 dollars to go toward camp. Matt offered for her to tag along on jobs as “gofer” (go for this, go for that), and Hermann reported that he’d be willing to have Mack work at Molly’s during the day.

****************

The next evening:

“How was shift?” Mack asked quietly as they ate dinner.

“Quiet, only one call” Kelly responded, “you still going over to 48 tomorrow?” He asked of her plan to shadow his buddy at Station 48.

“Yes, Mike and Erik are with me,” Mack said of her two closest friends in the Explorers group. They were the only two who didn’t give her shit for being a foster kid or living with Kelly, Matt, and Shay. She hadn’t told Kelly that most of the group made fun of her or accused her of taking advantage of Kelly being her foster parent. She tried not to let it bother her too much, as she knew that they were mainly jealous, it was still hard for her though sometimes.

“Oh great, when you’re finished why don’t you all meet me at Chi Café, we’ll grab dinner,” Kelly said.

“Sounds good, I’ll text them later tonight,” Mack said smiling.

Kelly put the Red Stars Academy pamphlet on the table, “So I thought about it, we talked, we’d love you to go to this summer. We’re proud of you and all your hard work,” Kelly said smiling at Mack’s look of shock.

“Really?” she asked amazed that he was saying yes.

“Yeah, I’ll pay 75% of the tuition. Matt and Hermann said you could get some hours with either of them. I think you being responsible for $500 is plenty.” Kelly said. He began to talk more but was interrupted by Mack jumping into his arms with a hug.

“Thank you, thank you so much!” Mack said quietly as tears came to her eyes.

“Your welcome, I’m proud of you Mack. You work hard, you get good grades, you are honest and kind. You deserve this,” Kelly said hugging her back.


	14. Chapter 14

# Chapter 14

 

Time Jump: Summer, Mack is at Soccer Academy, adults have the house to themselves:

“You up for a night out,” Matt asked Kelly as they stood in their bathroom brushing their teeth before heading to shift.

Kelly stopped brushing his teeth and stared at Matt in the mirror for a second before finishing and spitting the toothpaste out.

“Kelly, I asked you to go out, not to go to the moon, what’s wrong?” Matt said chuckling.

“Nothing, I just realized you, and I haven’t been out in _FOREVER_ ,” Kelly said worried that Matt was secretly upset with how domestic their lives had become.

Matt moved behind Kelly, wrapping his arms around Kelly’s bare stomach and resting his chin on Kelly’s shoulder, making eye contact in the mirror, “I know, that is why I suggested we go out, what’s the saying ‘when the kid’s away, the adults will play’” Matt said wigging his eyebrows which got a laugh from Kelly before he turned around to capture Matt’s lips.

“We used to go out more often,” Kelly said quietly to gauge how Matt felt about the shift in their lifestyle since Mack had come to live with them.

“Yeah, we used too, we also were in relationships that didn’t make us happy, and we weren’t giving a deserving girl the family she’s always dreamed of,” Matt said quietly as a response. He knew that Kelly sometimes worried about the impact Mack had on them, he also knew Kelly made him happier, content, and more settled than anyone else. 

Kelly shifted an eyebrow at Matt’s contention that Mack had dreamed of a family of 3 gay firefighter/EMTs, “Well maybe not exactly the family she pictured, but a family nonetheless,” Matt said smiling as he walked backward out of the bathroom and across the hall to their bedroom with Kelly still attached to him.

Kelly laughed again before kissing Matt and pushing him onto the bed; they still had a bit of time before they needed to leave for their shift, he was going to use every minute of it! Matt, being the ever-responsible captain that he was, stopped them before it could go too far as he couldn’t bare the idea of being late to work, _even_ if it meant a severe case of blue balls.

Matt took Kelly’s ribbing all the way into the work good-naturedly knowing that is wall jest and done with love. They were walking into the firehouse when Matt stopped them before they got to the door; “Kelly, you know that thing we’ve been talking about trying?” Matt said quietly to get his boyfriend’s attention, to which Kelly’s eyes got big, and his jaw dropped open. “I stopped us because I’d rather take the time to do that, than a quickie this morning,” Matt said grinning knowing he’d shocked Kelly completely before leaving him and walking into the firehouse smiling. He knew that Kelly would _now_ complain that they had to wait a whole 24 hours, but Matt liked the idea of teasing Kelly, he didn’t do it often, so when he did it had tremendous results, and Matt loved to watch Kelly squirm.

All summer they’d spent a lot of time talking about their relationship, how it started, how it was going and where they wanted it to head. While reading about parenting a teen, Kelly had come upon articles about how to take care of your relationship while also parenting. Matt was shocked when Kelly had started the conversation while on the run in June.

Flashback:

_Running along the river had become their habit while not on shift. They’d wake up and have breakfast with Mack, drop her off at school then head over to the river for a run. It was a beautiful early summer day; the sun was shining, it not too hot. Perfect. The two of them didn’t typically talk a lot while running, choosing just to spend time together was enough._

_“How do you think we’re doing?” Kelly quietly asked as they jogged along the bike path._

_Matt thought that Kelly was referring to their fitness levels that they’d started tracking with the new watches they’d bought each other for Christmas. It had come a bit of an obsession between the two of them this spring, however, it was also something they had been enjoying doing together. It didn’t hurt that they each admired the other’s results while showering and sleeping (or not sleeping)._

_“You saw the chart this morning, we both are doing well. I still think we should try that triathlon this fall; it would be a fun challenge,” Matt_ _absentmindedly said_ _said  as they jogged along the river._

_“No, I meant us, how do you think we’re doing. Do you feel like this relationship is going well?” Kelly asked quietly but firmly, glancing over to catch Matt’s eyes. Matt stopped dead in his tracks. Had Kelly just willingly and easily brought up a conversation about feelings? Was he actively looking to see how Matt thought and felt? Who was this man and was where did his tough, sometimes stubborn fireman go? Matt thought to himself alarmed._

_“What?” Matt asked shocked._

_Kelly stopped as well and looked at his boyfriend standing stock-still completely astonished. Kelly rolled his eyes and grabbed Matt’s hand bringing them over to the bench that was just ahead. “I was reading that blog Tony’s wife told me about, the one specific to teenage foster kids? Anyway, there was another article about how to maintain your relationship with your partner. It occurred to me that you and I haven’t ever really talked about us, beyond our conversation last year about being in a relationship.” Kelly said calmly._

_Matt continued to stare at him like he was an alien._

_“Would you stop looking at me like I have three heads, I’m trying to be serious here,” Kelly huffed somewhat petulantly._

_“I….I….think…think….”Matt started somewhat stuttering as he got his thoughts together, “I think it’s going well. It feels better than any other relationship I’ve had in recent memory.” Matt said slowly warming up the idea that Kelly was honestly interested in Matt’s thoughts on the topic._

They ended up walking along the river for hours talking about joking around with each other. From that time on, they both tried to be communicative about what they were thinking and feeling with each other — a side benefit of this new level of openness what the impact it had on their sex life. While it they had always had a good healthy sexual relationship, it seemed to both that it increased and improved exponentially as their conversation increased.

Present:

“You are going to regret that!” Kelly said to him with mock seriousness as they walked into the house and toward the locker room.

“I am sure I won’t,” Matt said smiling to his boyfriend as they changed and got ready for morning round-up.

“Ok, Ok, Ok listen up everyone,” Boden said in order to bring his crew to attend. “We have a new candidate on Engine, Hermann…” Boden said looking to his Lieutenant for Engine 51.

Hermann stood with another man, who did not look nearly as nervous and apprehensive as he should have been, given that it was his first day on the job, “Everyone, I’d like you to meet Seth Carmel,” Hermann said as passively as he could. When he’d met the kid earlier that week, he’d gotten an uneasy vibe from him but told himself he was being paranoid and to give the kid a chance.

“Seth, welcome to 51,” Boden said before going over the schedule for the day after he dismissed the crew and headed to his office.

The morning was relatively slow, with no calls. However, the crews were kept busy doing maintenance checks and cleaning the house as was customary.

“Dude Hermann, I think you may need to teach your candidate how to clean a bathroom,” Kellyjokingly said as he walked into the Common room.

Hermann looked up at the captain confused, “Huh,” he asked.

“Carmel, right, the new Candidate. Didn’t you tell him to clean the bathrooms?” Kelly asked his friend.

“Yes,” Hermann asked starting to feel anger rise in his stomach.

“Apparently the kid has never cleaned a bathroom before, you may want to check in with him, none of the trash cans were emptied,” Kelly said; seeing the fumes start to blow out of Hermann’s ears he began to feel a bit guilty about throwing the kid under the bus.

“Oh, for the love of…,” Hermann said as he jumped to go find his new candidate.

The rest of shift went well; they only had 3 or 4 calls, nothing too severe or dangerous, Squad didn’t get called once for any of the calls, which left Kelly more than a little antsy.


	15. Chapter 15

The shift couldn’t end fast enough for Kelly, all night he was distracted by Matt’s promise to fulfill a certain fantasy they’d been discussing involving rope, a blindfold and Matt naked. He’d been on the receiving end of this experiment a couple weeks before and literally couldn’t walk the next day his muscles were so sore from the number orgasms Matt had brought him too.

When they’d talked about the possibility of trying restraint and blindfold, Matt had been understandably nervous given his past with rope and confined space, so Kelly had volunteered to be tied up first. While Kelly was typically a top, he’d bottomed for Matt a few times and had always enjoyed it, particularly with how careful and caring Matt always was.

Knowing that Matt had a small construction job to do after leaving shift, Kelly headed to the boatyard in order to keep himself distracted although he didn’t last long and ended up hanging out at the pier with Shay instead.

“You going to Em’s tonight,” Kelly asked as they sat eating lunch.

“Yeah, we’re actually headed out of town for few days, we both had furlough stored up so we’re going to Door County, staying at some fancy place that Em found,” Shay said looking super happy.

Kelly grinned at Shay and wiggled his eyebrows, “really now,” He leeringly said.

Shay hit him on his shoulder and pouted, “Not like you aren’t going to take full advantage of the fact the house will be completely empty for the next three days,” Shay knowingly said.

Kelly sighed and tried to hide the thoughts that popped into his head, “Yeah,” He said quietly chuckling.

“Oh, I know that look, what’s going on,” Shay said as she turned on the bench and looked at her best friend.

“Nothing really, it’s just Matt mentioned us going out tonight and it made me realize that we barely go out anymore unless we’re headed to Molly’s. He and I haven’t been to a club in months,” Kelly said feeling bad.

“So, you’ve both been busy, you were injured for months. Has he said anything?  It always seems to me that you two are blissfully happy,” Shay pointed out.

“He hasn’t said anything, I just… you know…we weren’t together that long before Mack and then all of a sudden I have a foster kid…” Kelly replied his voice trailing off at the end in uncertainty.

“Kel, I do believe it was Matt who encouraged you to apply to have Mack live with us when her housing changed. If he wasn’t ready or into it, he wouldn’t have suggested it. We both know how stubborn that guy can be,” Shay said giggling at a memory from the week before and Matt refusing to admit that she’d been right when she called that a victim he saved would be at the firehouse within a day with chocolates and asking him out. It didn’t help that the victim was persistent and came back daily until one day when Kelly saw her coming up the driveway he moved quickly to Matt’s side, wrapping his arms around Matt from the back and laying the cheese on thick. The lady got the picture quickly and made a hasty retreat.

Kelly laughed at the memory before looking at Shay, “I love him” he told Shay quietly. They hadn’t said the words to each other yet, even though they lived together and essentially were raising a daughter together.

“Duh,” Shay said rolling her eyes at Kelly.

 

Later that night at Progress Bar in Boystown

Kelly and Matt chose to meet at the club, which meant Kelly had no idea what Matt was wearing, nor where he was in the bar. After scanning the room quickly once, he assumed Matt hadn’t arrived yet and went to the bar to order himself a drink. He stood at the corner, with an eye on the door as he sipped his beer and waited for his boyfriend. He had just received the beer he ordered when Matt came up behind him and slipped arms around Kelly’s stomach while whispering in his ear, “why didn’t we just stay home?” Matt asked making clear how good he thought Kelly looked.

Kelly laughed before turning around in Matt’s arms and kissing him. There was something to be said about coming over to Boystown, where they were free to use as much PDA as they watched. Sure, the guys at 51 were fine with them and had embraced the new couple with open arms, but Molly’s was not the type of place Matt or Kelly felt comfortable with excessive PDA and sometimes it was kind of nice to make out with your boyfriend in a bar without worry of what people were going think or say.

“You wanted to go out, we haven’t been out in forever,” Kelly whispered into Matt’s ears.

“I change my mind, let’s go,” Matt replied teasing Kelly by biting his neck gently.

“What’s the rush, I’m enjoying my drink,” smirked Kelly as he joined his hips with Matt so he knew just how this interaction was making him feel.

Matt, beyond horny and ready to get back to their house laid it on thick, taking every opportunity to tease and taunt Kelly. He lasted about another 20 minutes.

Chugging the last of his beer before slamming the bottle and two $20s down on the bar, Kelly turned to Matt and wrapped his arm around him, pulling Matt in close, “Okay you win, let’s get out of here” he said kissing just below Matt’s ear.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one day!

Kelly and Matt took full advantage of the 6 weeks Mack was at the soccer academy, going out frequently, heading up to Benny’s cabin, (Kelly couldn’t bring himself to sell after losing his father) and having as much sex as possible (much to Shay and Emily’s dismay, particularly when they decided that they should take advantage of not having to keep their voices down).

Kelly, Matt, Shay, and Emily went to as many games as possible to see Mack play, they’d only seen a handful of her games the previous fall so they were excited to see her play more. Her coaches at the academy were very positive about both her skill and her growth during that academy.

Before any of them knew it, it was the end of summer, Mack was back and going into her Junior year in high school. Kelly and she had a meeting with her guidance counselor to discuss classes and have a brief conversation about college, which completely freaked Kelly out, although he hid it from Mack well. Mack was dead set on applying to the fire academy when she graduated from high school, so she somewhat tuned out her guidance counselor’s spiel about college.

Hermann’s candidate was proving to be just as much of a pain in the ass as he had worried he’d be, Seth Carmel was a good, not a great firefighter but that was teachable, the problem was that he a complete and total asshole, who’d had to be put his place by one of the crew more than once in the month that he’d been at 51. Kelly particularly had taken a disliking to the arrogant and egotistical candidate who didn’t seem to notice he was not making any friends with his crew members or his lieutenant. Kelly knew he’d been a brash young firefighter as well, he remembered well the shit Benny gave him routinely, but he also knew his place, he knew that until he earned the respect of his crew members, he needed to shut up and keep his head down. Carmel clearly didn’t understand that.

Labor Day (Kelly, Matt, and Shay were on shift, Mack planned to stay at the firehouse since they were all working) It was a hot early fall day, so she’d decided to wear shorts and a tank-top to do her pre-season run on the way to the firehouse. The five-mile run had left her dripping with sweat as she walked up the driveway to the house. Between CFD Explorers, soccer and a heavy class load Mack was very busy, so she hadn’t been to the firehouse much since she’d been back from soccer academy. Her plan was to spend all her free time in either Kelly or Matt’s office doing homework if they were on shift and she didn’t have another place to be. It was quiet, and she enjoyed being close to them way more than she’d admit.

Hermann, Carmel and other 51 crew members were out on the apron washing the engine when she walked up, waving to Hermann before heading in to say hi to Kelly and Matt. Seth didn’t say anything at the time but Hermann did wack him in the back of the head when he caught the candidate staring at Mack’s butt as she walked into the house. “Don’t even _think_ about it,” Hermann growled at his candidate before having him run another house drill.

During Lunch:

“Dude Hermann, who was that hot piece of ass that waved at you earlier, and is she legal?” Seth said with too much confidence and enough sleaze in his voice that Hermann himself almost punched himself.

“That would Mack, Kelly’s foster daughter, who is 17,” Hermann replied with gritted teeth. He’d already told Boden that Carmel wasn’t going to cut it in the house, but he was required to give the kid a full 90 days before kicking him to the floater pool.

“What idiot at state let those two fags take care of a kid?” Seth said without looking up as he took a bite of his sandwich. He’d vaguely heard about the mysterious Mack over the last month but didn’t really understand who the person was and her relationship to the house. When the entire room went silent and he didn’t get a response, Seth looked up to see that might not have been the best choice of words. He also didn’t notice that Kelly, Matt, and Mack had come into the common room to get some lunch. The captains motioned for silence, wanting to see how deep of a whole the kid dug for himself before he noticed they were standing there. Kelly leaned again the doorjamb with his arms crossed, seething. He could see the steam practically coming out of Matt’s ears and Mack looked like she was about to grab a halogen and pummel the guy and she hadn’t even been introduced.

“What hell did you just say?” Hermann said before Kelly or Matt could response. This idiot was his candidate, he was relieved the two captains were clearly going to let him deal with him.

“Dude, you got to admit, it ain’t right. It’s one thing to be a fudge packer, but to bring a teenage girl into that? All kinds of wrong,” the candidate said shaking his head as he took a bite of his sandwich.

“What is wrong with giving someone a home, a family? Tell me I’m interested,” Kelly said quietly pushing himself off the doorjamb and walking up to the candidate.

Seth jumped to his feet and started stammering, “Oh Severide,” Seth started to say.

“It’s Captain,” Severide responded coldly.

“Captain, I didn’t mean, I…” Seth said still stuttering, trying to get himself out of the hole he just dug.

Someone must have alerted Boden to what was going on because suddenly, he was standing at the doorway to the common room with his ‘don’t fuck with me look.’

“Candidate, Lieutenant in my office NOW!” Boden growled before turning back to his office without so much as a glance to check if they were following him.

Hermann stood, shaking his head in disgust as he headed toward Boden’s office, Carmel behind him trying to get himself out of the mess he’d just created.

“Hermann,” Seth started to say.

Hermann halted and whipped his head around glaring at his candidate, “It’s lieutenant and I would suggest keeping your mouth shut,” he said before heading into Boden’s office.

The two firefighters walked into the Battalion Chief’s office. Hermann immediately stood at attention, recognizing this was not a casual hang out time with Boden, apparently Seth Carmel didn’t pick up on it and stood casually as if nothing had happened.

“Candidate stand at attention,” Boden growled.

Seth snapped to attention, hands behind his back, chin up and pointed forward, eyes not meeting Boden’s.

“Please explain to why I shouldn’t kick you out of my house,” Boden started glaring at the kid.

Seth’s jaw dropped open in shock; sure, he knew his attitude was somewhat brash and he’d rubbed some people the wrong way, but this was who he was, it had gotten him into the academy, he’d been in the top of his class, to hear that his Chief was considering kicking him of 51 was a complete shock.

“What?”

“Your behavior in the last month has been less than stellar, your Lieutenant and I had been holding out hope you’d shape up. Your behavior just now was reprehensible on this shift, in this house, within the entirety of CFD. So, tell me why _I shouldn’t_ kick out of my house.” Boden repeated slowly as if the candidate were ‘slow’.

Seth just stood there and stared at his Chief before shifting his eye contact to Hermann to get some help.

“Don’t look at me candidate. I warned you that your attitude needed to change. Your behavior today was bigoted and ignorant. There is no room for that behavior anywhere in the CFD.” Hermann replied to Seth’s look for help.

“I am not discharging you from the CFD, I am recommending that you go through various trainings to improve your attitude toward your crew members and society. Given the successful completion of these trainings, I will recommend that you be reassigned to a new house to begin your candidacy again.” Boden said handing Carmel the paperwork that described his punishment before walking to the door to his office and opening it, signaling that Seth Carmel could leave.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> super short chapter...you'll get more soon.

Later that evening Kelly and Matt were sitting on the bench outside the firehouse with Mack waiting for Shay to pick her from shift, “What’s on your mind, you’re pretty quiet,” Kelly observed.

“I’m just wondering if life is ever going to be boring,” Mack stated quietly.

Matt and Kelly looked at her puzzled.

Mack laughed and then clarified what she meant, “I mean, it would be kind of nice if life could be boring for a little bit. No bigoted firefighters, no foster drama, no crazy competitive soccer academies. No one getting hurt. I would just like to be boring for a while,” Mack said quietly leaning back against the bench and looking up into the night sky of Chicago.

“I’m sorry that happened today,” Matt replied quietly.

“It’s not your fault. I just…I love living with you guys, it’s the most stable my life has ever been. It’s everything else. I’m thinking I’m not going to play spring soccer, I think I just want to know what it’s like _not_ to have something to do in the afternoon.” Mack stated before continuing, “I love playing for my school team, and there is no way I’d give up Explorers, so I know this fall is somewhat my own doing, but this spring, I don’t love that team, I don’t plan on trying to play in college. I just want to spend more time here.” She finished just as Shay pulled up.

“Mack, whatever you feel like makes sense, we’ll figure out together. You are not required to do anything but try your best at whatever you set out to do. That is what I expect from you, OK?” Kelly asked standing to walk her to Shay’s car.

Kelly and Shay chatted for a minute before she took Mack home and Kelly went to sit back down with Matt. “I spoke with Miranda the other day at our meeting, I’ve been thinking about adopting Mack, so it’s permanent; What she just said, it kind of reaffirms my thought that this is what makes sense.” Kelly said quietly. “What do you think,” he asked as an afterthought.

“I sometimes forget she _isn’t_ adopted,” Matt said laughing. “When do you think you’ll file?”

“Her birthday is in the beginning of November, Miranda said that if I file now, we could plan the court date for her birthday as a surprise,” Kelly said smiling to himself. Matt may have just fallen more in love with the man sitting next to him which was hard to believe given how much he already love him.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi  
> Hopefully, this isn't as rushed as I think some parts of it are. As always love thoughts/comments and ideas

# Chapter 18

Kelly worked with Miranda to file for adoption through the fall. Miranda had to do a couple more home visits and different interviews, but since they were all in on the secret adoption plan, Miranda made up a story about how there is a process that all DCF kids go through when they turn 16. Luckily Mack bought it hook, line and sinker and did not seem to know of Kelly’s grand plan for her 16th birthday.

He’d figured out how to work his shifts around Mack’s soccer game schedule as much he could and had become a fixture on the sidelines at as many games as he could. When they weren’t working, Shay, Matt, Emily, and other Firehouse 51 members would come as well. Once he decided to adopt Mack, another level of love and connection opened for the tough as nails, sweetheart, a goofball teen who’d gotten both Captains wrapped around her finger. Shay had become a big sister she’d never had. Kelly, Matt, and Shay had never talked about it, but as time with the three of them progressed, Mack tended to think of Shay as a friend/mentor and Kelly or Matt as a parent. The roles were subconsciously established and seemed to work well for all them.

“Hey, you two have a minute?” Shay asked standing at the door to the men’s bedroom later one night after Mack had gone to sleep.

Both Kelly and Matt were sitting on the loveseat they’d put in their bedroom working on a crossword puzzle together, “sure, what’s up?” Kelly asked sitting up a little while untangling himself from Matt, to give Shay a space to sit.

“Emily asked me to move in with her,” Shay shyly said, blushing a little.

“What?!” Matt exclaimed surprised and happy for his friend, really Shay was another sister to Matt.

“I know, and I want to, I love her, and I’m ready for this step,” Shay said quietly avoiding Kelly’s eyes because she knew he’d pick up on her hesitation easily.

“But…” Kelly prompted knowing something was holding her back from this big step. Shay sighed and collapsed into her best waiting arms, feeling so happy and lucky she had people like Kelly and Matt in her life.

“I love living with you guys. I love living with Mack, I don’t want to leave you guys,” Shay said quietly curled into Kelly’s shoulder.

“We don’t live that far away from each other,” Kelly pointed out quietly. He was trying to be happy for his best friend because he was in theory, Emily was great, and the relationship had done so much for Shay, but he too was heartbroken at the thought of her leaving. They’d lived together in one place or another for over a decade.

“It’s not the same, and you know it,” Shay petulantly said punching him in her arm.

A thought popped into Matt’s head out of nowhere, and before he could stop himself his mouth was moving as if it was on another person, “What if we found a place for all of us? Like a duplex, so you two could have your space, and we could have ours, but we’d still live together,” Matt proposed.

Kelly and Shay sat up and stared at him like he was an alien, “I’m…. that’s a terrible idea, I don’t know what I was thinking…...sorry,” Matt spit out trying to “fix” what he’d just suggested.

“No! That’s the most brilliant idea ever!” Shay exclaimed launching herself into his arms, “You’re brilliant!” she sighed hugging him.

“Would Em be up for that,” Kelly wondered aloud.

“I really think she would, especially if we both had our own spaces. I mean the four of us would have to talk more and make sure this made sense, but if you two are interested, I’d love it. I love her, and I want to live with her, I do, but I love the little family we’ve created too, I don’t want to lose it.” She said explaining herself and her thinking further.

“Okay, so how would this work,” Emily queried this next morning as the four of them sat in their favorite breakfast spot nearby after Kelly and Matt had dropped Mack off at school.

“Well, I think basically we’d find two apartments in the same building, so we’d all have our space but still be neighbors,” Matt proposed taking a sip of his coffee.

“Are we going to be able to find two apartments we all like for rent in the same apartment at the right cost in the right location,” Emily said with skepticism.

“That might be hard, but it wouldn’t be if we all went in on a building together,” Kelly said nonchalantly bringing out a stack of papers from his bag. “I’ve found four buildings that are for sale. They are all three-unit buildings, we could buy it, we’d live in two of them and then rent the third.”

They sat at breakfast for another two hours discussing the pros and cons of buying versus renting, how they’d negotiate and handle something if they ended up buying something, then they had fun looking at the buildings Kelly had found. Immediately all four of them fell in love with one building with great character and right smack dab in the location that would be easier for all of them to get to work and Mack would be able to stay at her school. On a whim, Shay called the realtor who happened to be free and knew the building they were interested in was open for a tour. After paying their bill they all jumped into Kelly’s 4-runner and headed over to the place.

“Oh for fuck's sake!” Emily exclaimed as they pulled up in front of the building and all got out.

“What!? How can you hate it already, we haven’t even gone inside?” Kelly said in disbelief.

“She doesn’t hate it Kel, she loves it,” Shay smirked looking at her best friend because she knew her girl better and knew that what she was really saying was ‘I’m in love, there is no way I am not living here.”

They toured both units, it was a two-unit place, perfect for all of them. Kelly, Matt, and Mack would live in the downstairs duplex and Shay and Emily would live in the top floor apartments that was more than enough space for them. Given that they all knew that the place would go quickly but that they should also think about this HUGE move more, they asked the realtor for 24 hours. At first, the guy said the seller said no, but then apparently after hearing they worked for the CFD, the seller relented, he had family in the NYFD and had a soft spot for firefighters.

Kelly and Matt dropped Shay and Emily off at Emily’s place and headed over to the river to do a run and talk things through while they went for a run. Shay and Emily went to yoga before taking a walk to do the same.

Later that night as each couple lay in bed contemplating this huge move they each picked up their phone and texted each other:

SEVERIDE TO GROUP: I’M IN…   

MATT TO GROUP:

ME TOO

SHAY: HELL YES!

EMILY:

SO, IN!

SHAY: 

 (Emoji of Ambo, firetruck, and a house)*** 

 

The next morning, Kelly, Shay, and Emily were on shift, so Matt called the realtor and got the ball rolling. Given that the place was such a steal and that there were four of them, they could give a 30% down payment particularly because Matt was stingy with his money and had a huge nest egg Kelly didn’t even know about, Matt smiled and asked him to let him contribute their half of the down payment. Kelly wasn’t very comfortable with that at first, however, given that he’d been off work for so long the spring before and he’d just bought the 4-runner he didn’t have a lot of extra cash sitting around. After some back and forth they’d come to an agreement that each of them could agree with. By the time Kelly, Shay and Emily were off shift the next morning, they had a meeting with the bank and were signing papers for a mortgage. It helped that that all four of them had good jobs, excellent credit and were CFD employees, plus as they were all already members at the Chicago Municipal Employees Credit Union and had been for years, the bank was more than happy to facilitate an execrated approval process. The four adults chose to keep the new development a secret from Mack at first, not wanting to get her hopes up, but then the bank called a couple of days later with their closing date, November 7th, Mack’s birthday and adoption day. After meeting with Miranda and checking in with Tony’s wife to see if it would be too much, they decided to wait and let her see her new home after being adopted. During the legal process, they made sure to include Mack’s name (even if it was just in name only) on as many forms as possible so she’d know that this was her forever home, that she’d be stuck with them always.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *****If you know how to put emoji's in Ao3 text let me know. I couldn't figure it out.
> 
>  
> 
> This story is winding down, but there will be more in this universe


	19. Chapter 19: The Big Day

Chapter 19 – The Big Day

The night before the big day:

MACK TO ERIK AND MIKE: They are all being weird…something is up

ERIK TO MIKE AND MACK:

You need to be more specific;

they ARE all weird

MACK TO ERIK AND MIKE:

I mean more than usual.

Kelly was giggling at dinner tonight

MIKE TO ERIK AND MACK:

Maybe he and Matt have something special planned …

MACK TO ERIK AND MIKE:

Ahhh. What have I told you about Kelly and Matt sex jokes! Jesus!

MIKE TO ERIK AND MACK

You said don’t SAY them to you,

I didn’t I texted it :-/

MACK TO ERIK AND MIKE: You are an asshole…

ERIK TO MIKE AND MACK:

I must agree with Hudson on this one,

TMI dude, TMI

MACK TO ERIK AND MIKE:

Seriously though…can we get back to the issue at hand…. Something is up…

ERIK TO MIKE AND MACK:

Relax, they’re probably plotting against

you for your birthday tomorrow

MACK TO ERIK AND MIKE:

You two are useless…

That doesn’t actually help relax me.

MIKE TO ERIK AND MACK:

Aim to please GTG…mom’s calling me.

TTYL Happy Birthday.

See you at the house tomorrow!

MACK TO ERIK AND MIKE:

Okay, thanks TTYL

 

**********

MIKE TO ERIK:

You think she knows?

ERIK TO MIKE:

No…she’s clueless. You know her.

MIKE to ERIK:

So glad mom is letting me skip school tomorrow

You talked to your dad, right? You’ll be at the court?

ERIK TO MIKE:

Yeah, I have to go to first period

because my AP Chem class has a test,

but I’ll be there…

He’s going to pick me up

and drive me over.

MIKE to ERIK:

Sweet Sounds like he’s being better…

ERIK to MIKE:

Yeah, since mom left…

I think he’s actually realized he has a son

Taking me to a Hawks game on Saturday…

MIKE to ERIK:

Sweet. Sucks it took your mom bailing for it to change…

Okay, really do have to go Mom’s glaring

ERIK to MIKE:

Yeah, but at least it happened?

Dude, don’t make your mom wait any longer

That glare if fucking scary!

MIKE to ERIK:

Don’t I know it

TTYL

Kelly and Matt had recruited Mack’s two best friends in helping them pull off their surprise of a century. Mike would be meeting Mack at the firehouse in the morning for breakfast on the pretense of bringing her to school afterward. Kelly had already given permission for Mack to “go in late.” Really, he was going to bring her to the courthouse where pretty much all of 51’s crew, Emily, her soccer coach, a couple of teammates, Miranda and a few other important adults in her life would be waiting for her. Mike loved to cause trouble, but he also had a very serious side, which came with an impactable poker face, which is why he’d been volunteered for the role, he could easily take her to breakfast and not let on anything out of the ordinary besides a birthday breakfast would be occurring. They were meeting at the firehouse because it was a convenient meeting place for each of them.

 

Mack’s birthday:

“Happy Birthday!!!” Kelly, Matt, Shay, and Emily exclaimed bursting into her room and jumping on her bed while blowing noisemakers and popping party poppers.

“I thought the point of not going to school this morning was to be able to sleep in?” Mack mumbled from under her covers.

“It’s your sweet 16! We need to start celebrating now!” Shay exclaimed pulling the blanket from off Mack, looking at her in her Squad 3 t-shirt she’d stolen from Kelly and a pair of shorts, with her hair going everywhere, Shay snapped one picture before smirking, “well maybe after you shower,” she laughed at Mack’s middle finger as the teen tried to hide under the pillow.

“Get up, there’s a change in plans, Mike’s picking you up here! In 30 minutes”, Kelly said following the script they’d all perfectly planned out.

Mack groaned before rolling out of bed and shuffling to the bathroom mumbling about annoying foster parents and their need to early rising (a joke between them all).

“Hey, Mack? Kelly said grabbing her arm.

Mack turned to him, “Yeah” she said with her eyes closed.

“Happy birthday,” he mumbled pulling her into a big hug that Matt, Shay, and Emily joined.

They laughed for a minute before letting her go.

While Mike took her to her favorite diner for breakfast, Kelly, Matt, Shay and Emily went to the bank to sign the closing papers and get the keys to the house, before running over and hanging their premade “Welcome Home Mack!” sign.

At precisely 9:45 Mike pulled up to the courthouse parking lot with a blindfolded Mack in the passenger seat.

“Someone is going to think you’re kidnapping me,” she tried to point out in another effort to get him to take off his blindfold.

“Nice try, let’s go,” Mike laughed getting out of his truck and going around to help Mack out of the car. He carefully led her up the stairs and through the courthouse, through the metal detectors (even though she didn’t know they she was going through them --- it helped to have friends in PD, Erin and Jay were there to help get her through security) up to the fourth floor and into the courtroom where everyone immediately silenced when the bailiff had let them all know she and Mike were headed up. Mike led her down the aisle and through the gate to where Kelly and Miranda were standing at the table waiting. It was then that Mike took off her blindfold and she was greeted with the same judge who’d presided over her custody case since she was five years old, Kelly in his Captain’s uniform and all of her family and friends in the gallery who were dressed up for the occasion.

“What the hell is going on?” Mack asked with her usually bluntness.

Judge Clarland laughed at her and hammered her gavel.

“Kelly Severide, please raise your right hand, do you solemnly swear that your testimony today will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth under the penalty of perjury,” The judge said from her bench.

Kelly, grinning from her to ear, “I do your honor,”

“Ms. Nash You may proceed,” Judge Clarland stated to Miranda who was standing next to Kelly and Mack.

“Your honor we are here in the matter of the adoption of minor child Mackenzie Sarah Hudson, H-u-d-s-o-n, Cook County case number 459098112 -IL.,” Miranda started smiling as Mack heard the point of being there and cried out before slumping down in the chair that had luckily been placed behind her.

Kelly leaned down to her smirking, “surprise,” he said, “Happy birthday.”

“You are a complete and total asshole,” Mack muttered to him before throwing her arms around him in a bone-crushing hug.

Kelly laughed as he hugged her back, “this an ok birthday present?” he asked.

“Best present I’ll ever have,” She replied before unwrapping her arms and wiping the tears from her face and facing the judge again, so Miranda could continue.

“Your honor as I said the adoption of Mackenzie Sarah Hudson, the parties have been sworn in,” Miranda read from her file folder before turning to Kelly, “would you state and spell your name, state your address and your profession for the record sir,” Miranda grinning.

Kelly stood, gripping Mack’s hand who stood next to him, “Your honor Kelly Benjamin Severide, K-e-l-l-y b-e-n-j-a-m-i-n s-e-v-e-r-i-d-e, my address is….” Mack was in such a daze she didn’t notice that Kelly had given a different address to the place they’d been living for the past year before she zoned back in, “I am captain in the Chicago Fire Department.”

“Captain Severide, it is your understanding that today’s proceeding is to finalize the adoption of Mackenzie Sarah Hudson,” Miranda stated.

“Yes mam,” Kelly responded.

“You understand that you are agreeing to take full and total responsibility for Ms. Hudson from now until her 18th or longer,” Miranda continued.

“Yes mam,” Kelly replied.

Miranda smiled before turning to the judge, “Your honor, I have been Ms. Hudson’s case manager from the time she was 7 years old, it is my strong recommendation on the behalf of the Department for Child and Family services, Cook County Illinois that this adoption is granted.” Miranda read from her docket with a 1000-watt smile on her face.

“Thank you, Ms. Nash, Mackenzie, as it is your 16th birthday, I am required by law to ask you, are you in agreement to the motion for permanent adoption by Captain Kelly Benjamin Severide?” The judge asked smiling from her bench.

“Hell Yes,” Mack said laughing out loud, getting a chuckle from the judge for her language.

“Well then, Captain Severide, it is with profound pleasure that I grant this order. It is the order of this court on this day, Thursday, November 7, 2019, that the adoption of Mackenzie Sarah Hudson is granted to Kelly Benjamin Severide!” Judge Clarland stated before hammering her gavel. The entire gallery erupted in applause and Mack turned into Kelly’s arms balling with Joy. Matt, Shay, and Emily leaned over the gallery divider to pat her on the back. She took a minute to compose herself before turning to everyone. It took another 20 minutes before they got out of the courtroom and that was only because the bailiff kicked them out for the next case.

Mack punched Mike and Erik in arms for keeping the secret from her before hugging them both and thanking them for being her best friends in the world. Before long most of the group had to get going but not before being commanded to be at Molly’s that night for a birthday/adoption days celebration by Hermann.

Mack was walking down the steps of the courthouse with her family when Kelly brought out the same blindfold Mike had used a mere 60 minutes before, “There’s one more surprise,” he said grinning.

Mack, so over the mood by what had already happened that day, did not even put up a fight when he slipped the blindfold back on after piling into his car, with Emily and Shay right behind in her truck. With traffic, it took a little bit longer than they’d planned to get over to the new place, but soon enough they were all standing in front of the red house on the corner.

“I don’t think you noticed with all the commotion, but I gave a new address to the judge,” Kelly said quietly as he pulled off the blindfold, so she could see their new house.

“What?” Mack said in total disbelief looking at the big red house with a “Welcome Home Mack” sign hanging across the front.

“We felt that with the new dynamics, we needed new digs. Emily asked me to live with her, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave you or the guy either. So here we are! Emily and I will live in the first-floor apartment; you, Kelly and Matt will live upstairs. We all wanted to continue to be a family, so this way we can, while still having our own spaces,” Shay said grabbing Mack’s hand and pulling her into the new house, as excited as a 5-year-old in a candy shop.

Shay and Emily gave Mack a tour while Kelly and Matt brought a couple of essentials into their place. Little did Mack know that after today’s festivities, they’d be under the wire to pack and get out of their current place. The movers were coming in 3 days.

After a while, Shay and Emily left to go begin packing their stuff with plans to meet up for dinner before heading over to Molly’s

Kelly and Matt wondered through their new duplex talking about some of the changes they would like to make, namely the paint colors, and the trim on the main floor (which Kelly had to convince Matt not to tear down that minute). And there were a few things Matt knew needed to be changed. He could tell the exhaust fans in the bathroom _and_ the kitchen was nowhere near strong enough. As he went on a rant about low-quality exhaust and the potential damage it can do to a house, Kelly smiled and hugged him tightly. He loved his dorky contractor. They made their way down to the second floor, where Mack’s room was, and found her sitting cross-legged in what was going to be her room balling her eyes out

“You ok,” Kelly asked cautiously. He’d been somewhat nervous to spring all of this on her in one day, but it had seemed like she was doing ok earlier, now he wasn’t so sure.

Mack turned with tears in her eyes and a bright smile, “I just…” she started to say, “I just…It always seemed like this would never happen,” Mack finished through tears as the men came to sit on the floor next to her, each taking one of her hands in their own. They sat quietly waiting for her to continue, “Thank you doesn’t seem like the right words to say, I just…When Chaplain Orlovsky told me about some firefighter he wanted me to meet, thought maybe the guy would be helpful to me…” Mack started and stopped several times, taking moments to compose herself, “I…” Mack tried again before dissolving into tears again. Kelly wrapped his arm around the teen and pulled her close.

“It’s kind of crazy how life works out huh?” Kelly said quietly giving her a hug. “You don’t need to thank us, we didn’t do this as a favor to you. Matt and I have wanted to be a family with you for a long time. After the whole Seth Carmel thing, you were lamenting the lack of a boring predictable life; I had been thinking about adopting you for a while, but that just solidified it for me. You shouldn’t have to worry about where you are going to live. You should be able to live your life, make mistakes, take risks and know you’ll always have a family to come home to who love you no matter what. You would not believe the shit I’ve gotten for being a big cheeseball to do it on your birthday, but I just…I couldn’t think of a better time for you to turn 16 and know that you _always_ , _always_ have a home and a family.” Kelly said thoughtfully, wanting to explain his thinking.

Mack _didn’t_ say thank you, she just smiled and hugged Matt and Kelly for a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The big day is here I am thinking I am almost finished with this one maybe one or two more chapters Then I'll probably do some one-shots.   
> Let me know what you think if you have ideas for one-shots let me know


	20. Chapter 20

# CHAPTER 20

 

Two years later:

“Matt?” Mack said quietly standing at the doorway to Kelly and Matt’s home office.

Matt turned to see Mack standing at the doorway looking hesitant. Even three years on, she was often somewhat cautious in interrupting them when they were working, not wanting to be a bother.

“Hey, I thought you were out with Erik and Mike?” he said putting his pencil down and turning to chat with her.

“I was, but I have that chem test tomorrow I need to study for, so I came home early, is Kelly here?” she asked plopping down on the couch and curling up, fingering the paperwork she was holding in her hand.

“No, he and Shay got called in, apparently the Lieutenant Waulk came down with something and brought the PIC on 61 down with him. Grissom texted him like an hour ago. What’s up?” Matt asked.

“Well actually, I was hoping you could help me with his Christmas present?” Mack said passing the paperwork she was holding to show Matt.

He leaned forward to take the forms and read them before looking up to stare at Mack in surprise, “Does he know you want to do this?” Matt asked quietly.

“No, I thought I might be a cool present. I’m 18 now, so I don’t need his signature,” Mack replied biting her bottom lip. She’d turned 18 two weeks before much to everyone’s mutual chagrin. Mack would be graduating in the spring, with a full-ride to John Jay College of Criminal Justice in NYC in order to enroll in their Fire Science Bachelor of Science program. She was still somewhat unsure of going to NYC for college but when she’d been looking at schools for Fire Science and Emergency Management, John Jay had emerged as one of the best, it didn’t hurt that they’d given her a full ride plus housing and books. “Do you think he’d be okay with it?” she asked.

“Mack, you want to change your last name to Severide and you’re worried he’d be upset?” Matt asked her looking incredulous.

Mack chuckled when she realized she was being silly, “will you help me?” She asked.

“I’d be glad too,” Matt said smiling.

Luckily all that was required was going to the county clerk’s office and filing a statutory declaration to have her birth certificate changed, then going to the DMV and the passport office. After that, it was just filling out A LOT of forms for various places.

Christmas Morning (They’d managed to all get Christmas day off as they’d worked Christmas Eve. Emily and Shay came up to the duplex after changing into sweats in order to exchange gifts. The morning was jolly, all of them curled on various pieces of furniture in the living room while drinking hot chocolate and eating pancakes that Mack had made while they were on their way home from shift.

“Kel, this one has your name on it,” Shay said handing him a flat square box from under the tree, so he didn’t have to move from his spot curled up in Matt’s arms.

Kelly looked at the tag and then to Mack, “you already gave me the new shirt?” he said confused while unwrapping the paper carefully. Much to everyone’s annoyance, Kelly was one of those people who unwrapped gifts carefully to not rip anything.

Mack smirked and exchanged a look with Matt, “I know, this is different,” She said waiting while he got the box unwrapped and pulled the top off. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow before looking down at what was in the box, when he saw and read it, his hand went to his mouth and utter shock and he looked over at Mack.

“Are you serious?” he asked in complete disbelief.

“Yeah, YOU are my family, you all are my family, but when I enter the academy, when I get my shield, when I graduate next spring, I want them saying Severide, I want to hear Mackenzie Hudson _Severide_ when I am sworn into the CFD,” Mack said through tears as she stood up at walked over to him. “I hope that’s ok,” She said quietly.

“You have no idea how proud I am to have you have my last name,” he said hugging her.

“You’ve given me a whole new life Kelly, I want my name to reflect that,” Mack responded as the five of them hugged. It was true, while Matt, Shay, and Emily were a big part of her life, and certainly her family, it was Kelly who’d stepped up from the beginning, he was the one who she knew from the first day she met him, would somehow change her life. Now she had the name to go with it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it! HOpe you enjoyed! I have other Sevacy stories going and if anyone has any good websites for plot prompts I'm always looking for more!
> 
> Thanks for all the comments and encouragement!


End file.
